NEWS ARCHIVE – JANUARY, February 2014

UNASUR
Unasur agrees creation of the South American Defense College
La Hora (Ecuador), Feb 21, 2014 (Google Translate) – The creation of the South American Defense College ( ESUDE ) aims to be a ” center of higher learning of coordination of national initiatives by Member States for the training of civilian and military defense and security regional political-strategic level ” …. Created in 2008, the South American Defense Council (CDS ) is a framework for consultation , cooperation and coordination in the field of defense Unasur seeks to consolidate South America as a “zone of peace” and build a ” South American identity ” in defense that contributes to strengthening the unity of Latin America and the Caribbean and generate consensus.

‘MADE IN NORTH AMERICA’:
‘Three amigos’ summit: Can US, Mexico, and Canada modernize NAFTA?
Christian Science Monitor, Feb 19, 2014 – The plan is to modernize NAFTA by way of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a much broader trade accord being negotiated by 12 Pacific Basin countries – including the three NAFTA partners. The TPP, whose rules would apply to NAFTA trade, would regulate trade in sectors like e-commerce and some services that didn’t even exist when NAFTA was negotiated. It will also address issues like labor and environmental standards that were purposely left off the NAFTA table…. NAFTA “detonated the integrated supply and production chains” that mean the three countries increasingly produce “North American” and not national products…
TPP: ‘Back Door’ to Deepen NAFTA: Mexico Ambassador YouTube Video Posted by LexRex1644, Nov, 16, 2013 – The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trans-regional trade deal, would use a “back door” approach to further empower NAFTA, Arturo Sarukhan, then Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S., said at the NAFTA 20 Summit.
‘Three Amigos’ agree on ‘trusted traveler’ program
USA Today, Feb 19, 2014 – North American leaders agreed Wednesday on creating a continent-wide “trusted traveler” program, allowing vetted individuals to cross borders quickly…. The leaders also agreed on measures to harmonize customs data, improve infrastructure and increase co-operation with Central America…. Obama said he wanted 100,000 Mexican students studying in the United States every year…

NORTH AMERICA:
US senator calls for integrated, powerful Western Hemisphere
Global Times |Xinhua (China), Feb 19, 2014 – [Menendez] made it clear that the regional integration will not only cover trading but also other areas such as education, science and technology…
U.S., Mexico mull relaxing border for ‘trusted’ travelers – UPI, Feb 19, 2014 – The agreement, which would let frequent international travelers willing to undergo background checks and pay a $100 fee avoid immigration lines and expedite customs declaration when traveling within North America, was expected to be announced Wednesday…. The deal, at a time of stalled U.S. immigration reform, would underscore the disparity between accelerating U.S.-Mexican financial integration and creating U.S. laws affecting the 11 million immigrants living in the United States without legal permission, the newspaper said.
N. American leaders look East to revamp NAFTA – The China Post, Feb 19, 2014 – “It is not in the interest of the three countries to reopen the North American Free Trade Agreement,” said Mexican Deputy Foreign Minister Sergio Alcocer. “The negotiations are taking place via the TPP to cover those items that were not included in the agreement 20 years ago,” he added.
US and Mexico set to relax border controls for ‘trusted’ business travellers
The Guardian (London), Feb 18, 2014 – Officials speaking in advance of the North American leaders summit say a centrepiece of their communique is likely to be a new agreement to speed up the movement of executives and other regular travellers, primarily by establishing a single continent-wide system of pre-screening for certain individuals.

ASEAN:
Japan, ASEAN agree to cooperate in disasters, terrorism
Kyodo News (Japan), Feb 18, 2014 – China appears to be at the forefront of Abe’s defense vision, bolstering the case for Japan to strengthen ties with ASEAN.

NORTH AMERICA:
Arbitration Action Filed Against U.S. Over Mexican Trucking
Trucking Info, Feb 16, 2014 – Mexico’s biggest trucking association has filed a $30 billion dollar arbitration claim against the United States for refusing to fully open the country to trucks from south of the border, as called for in the North American Free Trade Agreement.

EU – EAU:
Time for EU to get serious on Ukraine
EU Observer, Feb 15, 2014 – Ukrainians are not willing to be a buffer zone between the Eurasian Union and the European Union.… It is hardly mentioned in European media that the EuroMaidan protests are known in Ukraine as a revolution “against-alls”….

GCC:
Kuwait Speaker leaves door open for all options on GCC pact
Gulf News (Dubai, UAE), Feb 16, 2014 – The MPs have been bitterly divided over the merit of the Gulf security pact that has already been ratified by other countries in the GCC, an umbrella for Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

ASEAN:
Integration just the start for ASEAN
Business World (Philippines), Feb 16, 2014 – “If looked at as a single country, ASEAN will be among the top ten economies in terms of population…. We have to ensure first that our institutions, our standards, and our people grow to be harmonized.”

SOUTH PACIFIC – Australia, New Zealand:
Joint Statement by Prime Minister Abbott & Prime Minister Key
National Journal, Feb 16, 2014 – Underlining their commitment to making sure the economic relationship fulfils its potential, the two governments have agreed on a way to take forward the joint Productivity Commissions’ report on strengthening trans-Tasman economic relations. The Prime Ministers said this work would boost productivity, increase competitiveness and deepen economic integration between the two countries.

EURASIAN UNION:
Russia Expects Ukraine to Integrate with Eurasian Union
RIA Novosti (Russia), Feb 13, 2014 – “We are counting on Ukraine’s return to the integration process,” presidential advisor Sergei Glazyev told an economic conference in Moscow. The Eurasian Union, to which Glazyev was referring, is an association of former Soviet countries that is due to be launched in 2015.
Armenia to host next meeting of Customs Union customs services board – ArmenPress, Feb 14, 2014
President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan announced about the Armenia’s decision to join the Customs Union and the necessity of implementation corresponding steps for that aim and in future about participating in formation of the Eurasian economic union.

GCC:
Yemen and the Federal System
Asharq Al- Awsat, Feb 13, 2014 – We look forward to the GCC’s support of the plan to develop and rehabilitate Yemen and link it to the Gulf’s economy. The country’s stability guarantees the Gulf’s stability—and it is worth noting that Yemen will eventually become a member of the GCC.

EUROPEAN UNION:
Switzerland bucks European Union, votes to limit immigration
CBS News, Feb 9, 2014 – The new proposal forces the government to draft a law extending quotas to immigrants from Western Europe and introduce limits on all foreigners’ rights to bring in family members or access Swiss social services. EU Commission spokesman Olivier Bailly said that it was disappointed by the vote. “This goes against the principle of free movement of persons between the EU and Switzerland,” he said.

GCC:
Oman’s $3B railroad plan to blunt Iran oil risk
The Daily Star (Lebanon), Feb 7, 2014 – The GCC Railway has a projected cost of $20 billion and aims to provide a route spanning six Gulf countries by 2018.

UNASUR:
China to fund Guyana-Suriname bridge
Curacao Chronicle, Feb 5, 2014 – The bridge was identified as one of the projects that would further physically integrate the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). During a meeting in Suriname in 2012, President Donald Ramotar and President Bouterse had agreed to move to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to seek joint financing for the bridge.
NORTH AMERICA:
Keystone XL oil pipeline clears significant hurdle
Associated Press, Jan 31, 2014 – The long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline cleared a major hurdle toward approval Friday, a serious blow to environmentalists’ hopes that President Barack Obama will block the controversial project running more than 1,000 miles from Canada through the heart of the U.S….. Republicans and business and labor groups have urged Obama to approve the pipeline to create thousands of jobs and move further toward North American energy independence.
Contrary to globalist Mitt Romney’s bait-and-switch campaign slogan, the Keystone XL pipeline is not about “North American energy independence.” It is a lifeline for Canada within a North American region-building infrastructure project. There is nothing wrong with pipelines, but the U.S. has the resources to achieve “energy independence” without Canada’s oil.

NORTH AMERICA:
Chamber of Commerce: Conservatives the ‘Problem’ in Amnesty Battle
Brietbart, Jan 26, 2014 – As Breitbart News reported, that is why the Chamber is reportedly going to spend $50 million against the Tea Party, largely because the Tea Party opposes amnesty and comprehensive immigration reform. According to Bloomberg News, the Chamber of Commerce wants to “rewrite” the immigration laws because current laws limit “access to workers.”
The U.S. Chamber is an affiliate of the International Chamber that, without hyperbole, has always exhibited an affinity for fascist regulatory “efficiency” that favors crony-corporate “partnership” with big government. Their most infamous example was the 1937 photographed meeting of the president and board members of the International Chamber with IBM founder Thomas J. Watson Sr. and Adolph Hitler.
Today their “efficiency” demands removing the “barriers” to “free trade” — such as the sovereignty of the world’s nations to control their own borders — to vast regional or continental bloc authorities, so that a “free movement of goods, services and people [cheap labor]” can occur within each of the world’s blocs. Only in this context does U.S. border control dereliction become clear.

AFRICAN UNION – EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY:
We anxiously look forward to our IDs
IPP Media (Tanzania), Jan 23, 2014 – As a matter of fact, in view of the East African Community now moving with full speed towards political integration, national IDs for Tanzanians are essential for the country to fulfill one of the requirements for the free movement of people in the region. So far only Kenya and Ruanda have national IDs while Uganda is processing them for its citizens. With Tanzanians also having IDs we will definitely see light at the end of the tunnel for the East African political federation.
“Papers, please.” Feudalism subjection is a way of life in most regions of the world.

ASEAN:
Three way battle for ASEAN regional hub, says Clyde & Co
Post (UK), Jan 24, 2014 – The ASEAN community is trying to transform the region into one where there is free movement of goods, services, investments, skilled labour and flows of capital. It also wants inter-regulatory co-operation and ideally a single insurance market by 2020.
Davos 2014 – The Reshaping of ASEAN: Consequences for East Asian Growth
World Economic Forum, uploaded Jan 24, 2014

EURASIAN UNION:
The EU Needs to Ask Russia the Tough Questions
France 24, Jan 23, 2014 – Moscow’s assertive diplomatic use of energy security, punitive trade measures, moneylending, and military might has successfully weakened EU strategies aimed at offering greater economic integration with many post-Soviet states in return for good governance. And with plans in the making for a Eurasian Union between Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and potentially also Ukraine, Armenia, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, Putin might become even more successful at keeping Europe out of what he considers Russia’s legitimate sphere of influence.
Putin’s Russia Goes Rogue – Brookings Institution, Jan 23, 2014 – Putin may believe that he cannot afford politically to “lose” Ukraine. Without Ukraine and its demographic and industrial base, the Eurasian Union has limited clout. Having recently stressed the cultural and historic unity of Russians and Ukrainians as “one nation,” Putin could face a Russian nationalist backlash if Ukraine moves in a focused way toward Europe.

ASEAN:
Fisheries law in disputed South China Sea riles Asean
Bloc agrees to take a united and tough stand against Beijing’s actions
GulfNews (Dubai, UAE), Jan 20, 2014 – China, Taiwan, and Vietnam claim the whole of the South China Sea…. Brunei, Malaysia, and the Philippines claim some parts of the Spratly Archipelago off the South China Sea, based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea…. Four of the claimants are Asean members.
Time for timid Asean to show its teeth – The Nation (Thailand), Jan 21, 2014 – The bloc must do more over territorial disputes with China, the annual haze and political crises in member countries
As the video BLOC HEADS portrays, China is ASEAN’s “designated antagonist” – an outside threat creating crises that will accelerate ASEAN’s “circle the wagons” integration, like the old Soviet Union did to spur the European Union.

SAARC:
Pakistan-India relations: a breakthrough
Business Recorder (Pakistan), Jan 21, 2014 – In a joint statement issued in New Delhi after talks, Commerce Ministers Anand Sharma and Khurram Dastagir Khan reported to have said on the sidelines of the 5th SAARC Business Leaders Conclave that both countries have reaffirmed the commitment to expeditiously establish normal trading relations, and in this context, to provide Non-Discriminatory Market Access (NDMA) on a reciprocal basis.

UNASUR:
Elections in Venezuela and Chile Advance Left Agenda and Latin American Economic Integration
North American Congress on Latin America, Jan 16, 2014 – Under Bachelet’s billionaire predecessor, Sebastian Pinera, Chile has been involved in setting up the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and is a founding member of the Pacific Alliance, a trade and investment group that includes Columbia, Peru, and Mexico. The United States has observer status…. Bachelet has given signs that a pursuit of these trade groupings alone is not in Chile’s interest…. It is notable that in 2008 during her last presidential term, Bachelet convened an emergency session of UNASUR (the Union of South American Nations), to support Evo Morales against a right wing “civic coup” attempt that received direct material support from the U.S. embassy.

SAARC:
Need to raise private sector role for regional integration: SAARC
Economic Times (Times of India), Jan 17, 2014 – “Movement of people should be smooth in the SAARC region. We need to work collectively for our economic development. Private sector can play a major role in enhancing regional integration,” Afghanistan’s Deputy Commerce and Industry Minister Mozammel Shinwari said here.
India for visa liberalisation in Saarc – Business Standard (India), Jan 17, 2014 – India on Thursday pitched for further liberalisation of its visa regime within the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) region to facilitate movement of businessmen, in a bid to increase trade and investment. “I will support enhancement of more SAARC visas so that more businessmen can travel. We also welcome Saarc countries to invest in India,” Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said….

ASEAN:
PH rallies ASEAN vs China fishing law
Rappler (Philippines), Jan 17, 2014 – Hitting China, the Philippines called for “regional solidarity” Friday, January 17, in the face of China’s new law requiring foreigners to seek its permission to fish in the disputed South China Sea. Speaking before the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Myanmar, Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario also slammed China for its air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea.

EUROPEAN UNION:
European Union chief accuses Britain of ‘scaremongering’ over levels of migration
Daily Mirror (UK), Jan 15, 2014 – Under Brussels’ rules, citizens of member states have the right to “free movement” in other EU countries. Speaking to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Mr Barroso said free movement was fundamental principle of membership.

NORTH AMERICA:
GOP set to fast-track ‘New World Order’ pact
WND, Jan 15, 2014 – The Obama administration has shut down the Security and Prosperity Partnership website, SPP.gov…. Now, with the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Obama administration appears to have leap-frogged SPP ambitions to create a North American Union by including Mexico and Canada in the TPP configuration.
Inside the House GOP’s immigration push – Politico, Jan 15, 2014 – “I get the sense that there’s a mood that is at least open to options,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), whose former chief of staff, Becky Tallent, is now Boehner’s top immigration aide. “Part of it is the business community, part of it is the evangelicals, part of it’s organized labor. It’s the largest coalition ever behind any piece of legislation.”

EURASIAN UNION:
Putin says new post-Soviet union ready for 2015 launch
YAHOO! News | AFP, Jan 9, 2014 – The alliance would replace a much looser Eurasian Customs Union that Russia formed with the two ex-Soviet nations in an effort to build up a free trade rival to the 28-nation EU bloc.
Putin Seeks to Create Post-Soviet ‘Eurasian’ Economic Union – Breitbart.com, Jan 9, 2014 – The AFP reports today that Putin’s plan for a “Eurasian Union” will count on Belarus and possibly Ukraine, but will meet resistance in most recently freed states.

AFRICAN UNION:
Will There Be an African Economic Community?
Brookings Institution, Jan 9, 2014 – Now the challenge is to harmonize tariffs (stage II) and create Free Trade Area (FTA) (III). The FTAs are expected to progress to a continent wide customs union (stage IV) to be followed by an African common market (V) with a single currency. The ultimate goal for the AEC is to merge the eight RECs into one economic and monetary union (stage VI).

GCC & REGIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE:
Gulf: GCC regional railway network to expand to Yemen
ANSAmed (Media partner of the European Commission), Jan 9, 2014 – Currently the only country in the Arabian Peninsula not part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Yemen may soon be more closely linked to its neighbors through a plan to extend the regional railway network to its borders.

EURASIAN UNION:
How We Can Help Ukraine
National Review, Jan 2, 2014 – Vladimir Putin might be interested in pursuing his adviser Alexander Dugin’s dream of constructing a fascist “Eurasian Union” ….He envisions the creation of a Eurasian bloc, including not only the republics of the former Soviet Union, but also Germany, Central and Eastern Europe, Turkey, and Iran, united under the iron heel of a new totalitarian “fourth political theory” to oppose the West. According to Dugin, who bases most of his allegedly novel synthesis of Communism and Fascism on the geopolitical, legal, philosophical, and occult ideas of Nazi theorists Karl Haushofer, Rudolf Hess, Carl Schmitt, and Arthur Moeller van der Bruck, such a “Eurasist” continental block is needed to defeat the nefarious influence of the secret “Atlantic Order,” or “Atlantis” — the global mercantile maritime/cosmopolitan conspiracy….
Persia, Ethiopia and Libya with them….the house of Togarmah…and many people with thee. Ezekiel 38
The rate of integration of other fascist regional blocs will only accelerate in 2014, in response to the emergence of the Eurasian bloc.

EURASIAN UNION:
Iran to Cooperate, Collaborate with Eurasian Customs Union
Iran to Russia: Iran respects Armenia’s decision to join Customs Union
Panorama.am (Armenia), Dec 29, 2013 – “Tehran respects Armenia’s decision to join the Customs Union and as a neighboring country hopes that the Union will be a success.” Ambassador Sanaei when speaking about the possibility of Iran’s accession to the Customs Union said: “There is no doubt; our country will cooperate with the CU. Currently Tehran works at the development of several projects of cooperation with the CU. At present Iran don’t intend to join the CU, but is ready to collaborate with all the countries of the region.”