Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Oil Tops the Agenda in Russia's Talks with China

Prime minister Wen Jiabao will discuss possible Chinese plans to invest up to $12 billion in Russian energy industries.
#msg-4087760

I would think the monetary investment China is putting into Russian oil and gas is one reason “China firmly supports Russia in safeguarding national unity and territorial integrity and to insure the safety of the citizens.”

"The Chinese government and people are ready to, as much as they can, assist the Russian government and people when the Russian people are in difficulties," he said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-09/21/content_2003548.htm

As one means to dominate the world Bush is trying to control all of the oil forcing other countries into a subservient relationship much akin to slavery. This they cannot tolerate and could be the catalyst for a Russian/Chinese alliance which will ironically end Bush’s quest for hegemony. Thus the simpleminded Bush is dooming his own agenda.

The U.S. is not interested in Caspian oil to supply its own internal industry. The U.S. is grabbing for control of the Caspian oil fields because other countries need this oil--and because the U.S. wants to control them. Other imperialist rivals--including Germany and Japan--are "energy poor" and need access to oilfields outside their borders. Most Third World countries are heavily dependent on imported oil.
#msg-4031479

-Am

Oil Tops the Agenda in Russia's Talks with China

Fri 24 Sep 2004

Russia and China hold talks in Moscow today with terrorism and the security of oil supplies at the top of the agenda.

Russian President Vladimir Putin needs Beijing’s backing in his bid for membership of the World Trade Organisation, and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao wants a steady supply of Russian oil to feed his country’s rapidly growing economy.

Already Wen’s visit has yielded progress in the energy sphere: the head of Russia’s state-owned rail network announced yesterday that a Chinese oil company would pay for oil deliveries by rail from the embattled oil company Yukos for October.

Yukos’s announcement earlier this week that it would cut 100,000 barrels per day of crude supplies to China’s National Petroleum Corporation alarmed China, which has sharply increased its oil imports from Russia as it tries to meet the needs of its surging economy.

Oil imports from Russia jumped 73% last year to 36.7 million barrels, according to Chinese state media. In comments to the ITAR-Tass news agency, Wen said China could increase Russian oil imports to up to 15 million tons (105 million barrels) by 2006.

“We are stressing the sphere of security and economic cooperation,” Wen said, following a meeting with the speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament.

Beijing has been lobbying Moscow to build a £1.4 billion pipeline to ship Siberian oil to China. A competing proposal has been pushed by Japan, which considers a pipeline to Russia’s Pacific port of Nakhodka more advantageous for its energy demands.

Russia also wants Beijing’s backing in its efforts to join the World Trade Organisation. Russia first applied to join in 1993, but only started making major efforts to fulfil membership conditions when Putin came to power in 1999.

Russia hopes to complete all bilateral negotiations with WTO members by the end of this year and begin the formal process of accession into the world’s biggest trading club in 2005.

Russia and China have strengthened economic and strategic ties considerably in recent years as China’s economy continues to surge. China is a top buyer of Russian weaponry, according to trade media reports.

In a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao last year, Putin said relations between Russia and China “had reached their highest level ever.”

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3539657