Iran Completes Eurasian Golden Triangle

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Iran Completes Eurasian Golden Triangle

Iran, Russia, and China now set to change the current Western course of wars and destruction in favor of cooperation, development, peace and prosperity

Iran set to be a major player in Eurasia
Originally appeared at New Eastern Outlook
Sometimes profound tectonic shifts in the global politics arise from least noticed events. Such is the situation with Iran and the recent visit to Teheran of China’s President Xi Jinping. What emerged from the talks confirms that the vital third leg of what will become a genuine Eurasian Golden Triangle, of nations committed to peaceful economic development, is now in place. Now Iran, Russia and China have all indicated a will to cooperate that has the potential to change the current Western course of wars and destruction in favor of peace and cooperation. Consider some aspects of recent events since lifting of economic sanctions on Teheran only days ago.
What emerges in the public announcements following talks between China’s President and all top Iranian leaders from Prime Minister Rouhani to Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, merely hints at what is clearly a profound shift in the relations between China and Iran. On January 23, an official Chinese Xinhua news agency statement on Xi’s Iran trip, the first by any Chinese leader in fourteen years, declared the visit will, “lift their ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership.” In Teheran the Chinese President noted, “China stands ready to work with Iran to seize the momentum and further elevate our relationship and practical cooperation, so as to usher in a new chapter for our ties featuring comprehensive, long-term and stable development.”

Developing the economic fibers

The content of that cooperation is of a major geopolitical and geo-economical importance for not merely Eurasia, but for the world. Iran has just formally requested to join the world’s most important infrastructure project, China’s One Belt, One Road initiative, often called the New Silk Road Economic Initiative. The New Silk Road initiative was first proposed during a September 2013 meeting in Astana between Xi and Nursultan Nazarbayev, the President of Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan today is also a member with Russia of the Eurasian Economic Union and also of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Keep these various threads of an evolving economic fiber in mind as we proceed.

Since that initial 2013 discussion in Astana, the One Belt, One Road has begun to transform the political and economic map of all Eurasia. Last year in talks in Moscow just prior to the May 9 Russian Victory Day celebrations, where Xi was a specially honored guest, Vladimir Putin announced that the Eurasian Economic Union–Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan–will formally integrate its own infrastructure development with China’s New Economic Silk Road.

Now the formal addition of Iran to the expanding Eurasian Silk Road is a giant positive step. It will allow Iran to break years of economic isolation and Western sanctions, and to do so over land where NATO color revolutions and other shenanigans are rendered largely impotent. It will open for the rest of Eurasia, especially China, but also Russia, vast new economic potentials.

Iran’s extraordinary resources

Iran has a young, educated population of more than 80 million, more than half under 35 years old, and a strategic land expanse twice the size of the state of Texas. It has the ninth highest literacy rate in the world–82% of the adult population, and 97% among young adults between 15 and 24 without gender discrepancy. Iran has 92 universities, 512 online University branches, and 56 research and technology institutes around the country with almost four million university students, one million of them medical students. One third or 31% are studying in Engineering and construction programs, one of the highest rates in theworld. Iran today is not the primitive backwater many American policymakers imagine it to be. I’ve witnessed that first hand.

The country has also been blessed with vast undeveloped economic resources, not only its huge reserves of oil and natural gas. It is situated adjacent to Armenia and Azerbaijan on the north, Afghanistan and Pakistan on the east, and Iraq and Turkey on the west. The Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman lie south, and the Caspian Sea—the largest inland body of water in the world—lies to the north, giving Iran most of the water needed for its agriculture.

In terms of other natural resources it has one of the world’s largest copper reserves, as well as bauxite, coal, iron ore, lead, and zinc. Iran also has valuable deposits of aluminum, chromite, gold, manganese, silver, tin, and tungsten, as well as various gemstones, such as amber, agate, lapis lazuli, and turquoise. It’s a beautiful, rich country, as I can personally attest.

Now, by connecting the country to the expanding network of high-speed rail infrastructure in Eurasia’s One Belt, One Road, Iran’s future will become firmly tied to the most vibrant economic space on the planet–Eurasia–from the Pacific to India to Russia and, whenever the EU decides to stop being suicidal vassals to a Washington gone mad, also to Europe.

Notably, the peaceful economic relations between Iran and China go back some 2,000 years, when Persia was a key part of the ancient Silk Road trade route from China to the west. That fact was underscored by President XI. For the past six years, China has been Iran’s largest trading partner, which, despite western sanctions, reached $52 billion in 2014. That is now set to vastly increase, as Western sanctions are gone……More Here

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