The repeated bombings by Israel's air force and the threat of a ground incursion, with a potential catastrophe of biblical proportions, have a strong impact on the countries of the South. Both Beijing and Moscow are capitalizing, especially in Arab and Muslim capitals, on the sentiment in the streets and on the networks, as well as the attrition of the most indestructible allies of the occupying power.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have just joined the Brics group, which they lead. The last country voted on Monday with Russia and China at the UN Security Council in favor of a proposal for a truce in Gaza, which was overturned.
The calculations in the region, at this dramatic moment, would be different if in March, through the mediation of Beijing, Riyadh and Tehran – which in recent years has approached Beijing and Moscow – they had not buried the hatchet.
Yesterday Tuesday, an atomic Vladimir Putin, after the Duma just gave him a free hand to carry out nuclear tests after 33 years, landed in Beijing. The host, Xi Jinping, rolled out the red carpet for him, grateful that his counterpart, the Russian president, did not want to miss the Third World Forum of the New Silk Roads, just as he did not miss the second nor the first
The exceptional exit from Putin's Russia threatens to overshadow the dozens of international leaders who have sought to portray themselves on the tenth anniversary of the Chinese president's most ambitious program. However, the bilateral meeting between Putin and Xi will take place today, Wednesday, with the Gaza war in the background and practically simultaneously with the planned interview in Israel between Presidents Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu.
Vladimir Putin has left Russia on numerous occasions since he launched the invasion of Ukraine in February of last year. Among other things, because he has an open case at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. A few days ago, Putin traveled to Kyrgyzstan, which does not recognize the jurisdiction of the aforementioned body, nor do Russia, China, the United States or Israel.
The Russian president, who did not go to the G-20 summit in New Delhi, nor to the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, had a busy schedule yesterday. He interviewed the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán; with Thailand's Srettha Thavisin - who has just extended the visa-free stay of Russian tourists from 30 to 90 days -, as well as with the presidents of Serbia, Vietnam and Mongolia. A new gas pipeline between Russia and China will pass through the latter country.
Connectivity is the key. Xi Jinping wants all roads to lead to Beijing. To ensure the supply of raw materials for the world's factories, as well as the export of manufactures, the Chinese president created the New Silk Roads ten years ago. A backbone of Eurasia – and even of other continents – seen as a full-fledged challenge from London and Washington, mainly.
The countries of the so-called Global South are under no illusions about the "multilateral" siren songs coming from Beijing or about the possible virtues of a Sinocentric world. But elites are happy to let themselves be loved by more than one bidder, while ordinary citizens find that infrastructure remains, even when everything else has been stripped away.
The high-speed train that connects Mombasa with Nairobi, in Kenya, or the capital of Laos with Kunming, in China, or, more recently, the first high-speed train in Southeast Asia, between Jakarta and Bandung, are some of the examples of the enormous financing and construction effort, close to a billion euros.
Nevertheless, a China that has left behind its runaway growth will from now on prioritize projects that are less gigantic, with less ecological impact and easier to finance. Smaller, prettier and cheaper, in the words of the Chinese Vice Prime Minister, Han Zheng, yesterday, in front of an audience of foreign executives.
The average amount per project, in fact, has gone from the initial 500 million dollars to the current 300 million.
Among the guests in China, the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, stands out, who visited the first museum dedicated to lithium, the white gold essential for the ecological transition that abounds in his country.
The big absentee – in line with the West – is once again India. The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, led the G-20 summit on an alternative corridor that would unite Europe with India, via Israel and Saudi Arabia. A project that, in less than a month, has gone down the drain with the slaughter of Hamas and Israeli retaliation.
The coincidence of the New Silk Road Forum with the demolition of Gaza reinforces for Xi the message that China builds and seeks peace, while others divide and destroy. The Ukrainian trench remains open, but the attention of the United States is already elsewhere.
