The Great Game Changer: Belt and Road Intiative (BRI; OBOR)

[cirr]

A deal of enormous long-term significance

1MDB Sells Majority Stake in Real-Estate Project for $1.7 Billion

State investment firm seeks to cut debt

The landmark KL Tower in Kuala Lumpur in the background with the 1MDB logo in the foreground in September. PHOTO: MANAN VATSYAYANA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

By YANTOULTRA NGUI and P.R. VENKAT

Updated Dec. 31, 2015 8:44 a.m. ET

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—Malaysian state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd. Thursday said it had agreed to sell a majority stake in a Kuala Lumpur real-estate project to a consortium that includes a state-owned Chinese company for 7.41 billion ringgit ($1.72 billion), the second time in recent weeks that a Chinese firm has helped 1MDB cut its debt pile.

The involvement of China Railway Engineering Corp., the Malaysian unit of China Railway Group Ltd., in the winning consortium comes at a time when it is competing with Japanese firms for a contract to build a high-speed rail link between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. China Railway Engineering Managing Director Cai Zemin said at a news conference announcing the deal that the company would try its best to get the railway project.

Malaysia has previously said any tender would based on internationally recognized standards.

Thursday’s agreement closely follows 1MDB’s move to sell energy assets for $2.3 billion to Chinese state-owned firm China General Nuclear Power Corp., which will also assume 7.43 billion ringgit of the debt held by the energy unit, Edra Global Energy.

The property sale, meanwhile, is for a 60% stake in Bandar Malaysia, the site of an old air force base on the edge of Kuala Lumpur’s city center. It is one of two prime plots of land in the capital that 1MDB bought from the government and planned to develop into a mixed shopping, residential and entertainment center. 1MDB will retain a 40% stake in the development. It also wholly owns another city center development, Tun Razak Exchange, named for Malaysian Prime MinisterNajib Razak’s father.

MALAYSIA’S 1MDB DECODED


In a statement Thursday, the state-run firm, whose advisory board is chaired by Mr. Najib, said that “today’s agreement marks the final major milestone in the 1MDB rationalization plan.” It expects the cash deal to be completed by the end of June next year.

Mr. Najib said the deal to sell Bandar Malaysia meant that 1MDB’s major challenges were now behind it.

“Now it is time for us to await the outcomes of the inquiries into the company; to take note of any lessons that need to be learned; and to move on together in a constructive manner,” he said in a New Year’s statement.

Some opposition politicians, however, said the planned sale risked selling off valuable state assets to pay off debts accrued by what they say is 1MDB’s reckless expansion in recent years.

“Today’s agreement has confirmed my earlier fears that 1MDB’s financial troubles will drag the nation into selling off crucial national assets, to pay off the sovereign fund’s massive debts,” said Rafizi Ramli, secretary-general of the People’s Justice Party.

1MDB didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

1MDB has begun selling off assets after accumulating more than $11 billion in debt since its launch in 2009 and becoming the focus of investigations in several countries. Its problems have brought scrutiny to Mr. Najib’s role in overseeing 1MDB and have hurt investor confidence in Malaysia’s commodities-driven economy, which had already been suffering from fund outflows and falling oil prices.

The Wall Street Journal reported in July that government investigators had traced nearly $700 million that had passed through agencies, banks and companies linked to 1MDB to the prime minister’s alleged private accounts, but didn’t know where the money went.

Mr. Najib had denied any wrongdoing or taking money for personal gain, but hasn’t explained how the money that was transferred to his alleged accounts was used. He described it to local media as a donation, while his deputy prime minister, Zahid Hamidi, previously said such donations were legal under Malaysian law. The country’s anticorruption agency said the money came from a Middle East donor.

FULL COVERAGE: MALAYSIA’S 1MDB

OLIVIA HARRIS/REUTERS

1MDB also denied any wrongdoing and said it would cooperate with the investigations.

China Railway Engineering is teaming with Malaysian tycoon Lim Kang Hoo’s Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Bhd. to buy the stake in Bandar Malaysia, beating other bids from Malaysian groups and interest from the Middle East. Iskandar is also developing a high-end residential and commercial complex in the southern state of Johor, opposite Singapore, and its involvement in the Kuala Lumpur project will help expand its reach in Malaysia.

The Bandar Malaysia site is also attractive to China Railway Engineering as it is planned to be the terminus of the proposed high-speed rail line to Singapore.

The buyers will also take on all of Bandar Malaysia’s obligations, including a 2.4 billion ringgit Islamic bond and the costs of relocating police and military facilities that were on the Bandar Malaysia site, 1MDB President and Group Executive Director Arul Kanda said.

1MDB Sells Majority Stake in Real-Estate Project for $1.7 Billion - WSJ

 

[Manidabest]

China is just looking for markets for its products and nothing more really its just business nothing personal

 

[cirr]

China Railway awarded Gemas-JB rail project

BY SHAREN KAUR - 11 DECEMBER 2015 @ 12:07 PM

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is awarding the Gemas-Johor Baru electrified double tracking project (EDTP) to China Railway, says Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.

Liow said the Gemas-JB line will complete the whole electrified double tracking rail network up to Padang Besar.

Currently, there are 1,641.4km of railway network in Malaysia, of which 46 per cent are electrified double tracks.

The completion of the Gemas-JB EDTP in 2020 will increase the number to 58 per cent.

Liow was speaking at the opening ceremony of the China High Speed Railway Exhibition, here, today.

"We have committed to and are awarding the contract to China Railway so we can speed up the project, he said.

He said keeping in mind how critical a good transportation network is for economic growth and social inclusion in Malaysia's journey to become a high-income nation, his ministry is working hard to identify new railway lines that will enhance the existing rail network especially within the Klang Valley.

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said the government is awarding the Gemas-Johor Baru electrified double tracking project (EDTP) to China Railway.

China Railway awarded Gemas-JB rail project | New Straits Times | Malaysia General Business Sports and Lifestyle News

 

[TaiShang]

China-Europe fast rail brings mutual benefit
January 2, 2016

Trains made nearly 180 round trips between Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province and Lodz, Poland, in the last two and a half years.

Since 2013, three trains a week have made the 9,826 kilometer trip on the Chengdu-Europe fast rail, reaching Poland via Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus.

"Commodities are transported to Europe within 15 days," said Xu Pingfu, vice director of the Chengdu logistics office. "It is the fastest freight railway between China and Europe."

Around 300 trains will ply the route in 2016, which will extend to Hamburg in Germany and Tilburg in the Netherlands. Commodities from coastal cities like Shanghai, Shenzhen and Xiamen are transported to Chengdu and from there to Europe because of the line's low cost and high reliability.

"The price of transporting commodities on the Chengdu-Europe line is one fifth of the air freight cost, and it is three times faster than shipping," said Xu.

Chengdu will spend a total of 1.9 billion yuan (300 million US dollars) in the next three years building China's largest international railway port, said Chen Zhongwei, director of Chengdu logistics office.

Many leading exporters are considering moving to Chengdu for these reasons, according to Chen.

"We aim to be the pivot between Europe and Pan-Asia by building international railways and establishing a European commodity distribution center in the next three years," Chen said.

 

[cnleio]

Eight countries. 2,055 nuclear tests. 71 years.

In the name of national security, eight countries have tested nuclear weapons all over the world since 1945, frequently near populated places. North Korea’s claim of hydrogen bomb test draws skepticism, condemnations.
(gif display in the news)

Eight countries have performed nuclear tests. The United States and U.S.S.R. have performed the most explosive tests in history.

“Yield,” a measure of how much energy an explosion releases, is measured in kilotons — one equalling about the power of 1,000 tons of TNT. Both nuclear superpowers have performed nuclear tests with yields of at least 10,000 kilotons (at scale above: ).

The United States is the only country that has used a nuclear weapon in war. Those destructive detonations — in Japan at Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and at Nagasaki three days later — were just 15 () and 21 () kilotons.

[A ground zero forgotten: The Marshall Islands, once a U.S. nuclear test site, faces oblivion again]

Nuclear tests throughout history, per country
Most nuclear powers have not performed a nuclear test in decades. Only North Korea has tested in the 21st century.

The United States and Russia possess 93 percent of the global nuclear warheads arsenal, according to Federation of American Scientists estimates. Both countries each have several thousand “retired” warheads awaiting dismantlement.

 

[cnleio]

White House: No evidence to support North Korean ‘hydrogen bomb’ claim

TOKYO — World leaders slammed North Korea on Wednesday for carrying out a fourth nuclear test, an explosion that Pyongyang claimed was a powerful hydrogen bomb but whose strength was strongly questioned by international experts and American officials.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said initial data from various monitoring sources were “not consistent with North Korean claims of a successful hydrogen bomb test.”

Nuclear monitors also said the magnitude of the blast suggested an atomic explosion rather than one produced by an exponentially more powerful hydrogen device — potentially more than 1,000 times more destructive than the bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima near the end of World War II.

[A look behind the North’s claim]

In New York, meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council gathered in an emergency session and strongly denounced the reported test as a “clear threat to international peace and security,” said Elbio Rosselli, the envoy from Uruguay, which currently holds the council presidency.

He said the council would begin work on a new resolution. But Rosselli did not specify possible further U.N. measures against the North, which described the device as an “H-bomb of justice” needed for defense against the United States.

“Regardless of whether this is a hydrogen test or a normal, vanilla device, this is a very serious provocation,” said James Acton, co-director of the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

North Korea's three previous nuclear tests since 2006 have been met with international condemnation, including resolutions and sanctions from the Security Council. But the response has done nothing to deter Pyongyang.

Despite the widespread skepticism about the North’s assertion, data from the blast will be carefully scrutinized for any hints of technological advances in its nuclear program. Even incremental progress would demonstrate that the North has been able to develop its expertise despite international sanctions and other pressures.

The test also appeared to be part of efforts by the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, to project strength at a time when the country faces increasing isolation, including growing strains in its critical lifeline with China.

The North’s renegade status has been further underscored by the nuclear deal reached last year between Iran and world powers, including the United States and China. Under the pact, Tehran agreed to limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the easing of international sanctions.


A confirmed North Korean nuclear test would be the 2,055th since 1945 VIEW GRAPHIC
Over the past decade, Iran has developed capacities to make nuclear material, but its leaders insist they do not seek an atomic weapon.

In contrast, North Korea “is apparently willing to accept international isolation,” said Earnest.

In Vienna, Lassina Zerbo, executive secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, said a seismic reading on Wednesday was “slightly down” compared with the level from the North’s last nuclear test in 2013.

A full analysis by the watchdog group could take days as experts look at other data including airborne radioactive isotopes, said Zerbo.

A U.S. dry fuel hydrogen, or thermonuclear, bomb tested in 1954 at Bikini Atoll had a yield of 15 megatons, making it more than 1,000 times as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb.

In Seoul, South Korean President Park Geun-hye put her military on alert and said North Korea would pay a price for the test, which she called a “grave provocation.” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had a similar message, describing it as “a major threat” that Japan “absolutely cannot accept.”

The United States pledged to stand by its allies in the region.

“We do not and will not accept North Korea as a nuclear armed state, and actions such as this latest test only strengthen our resolve,” Secretary of State John F. Kerry said in a statement.

[North Korea also tests limits of Chinese ties]

“The answer to North Korea’s threats is more pressure, not less,” said Rep. Edward R. Royce (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

But the severity of any international response will depend on the level of political will in China and Russia, both veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council and the closest thing North Korea has to friends.

After a nuclear test in 2013, the first of Kim’s tenure as North Korea’s leader, China supported expanded sanctions against the country, although it is not clear how strictly Beijing has enforced the restrictions on its neighbor.

Still, China also condemned the test Wednesday.

“Today [North Korea] ignored the general objection from the international community and conducted a nuclear test once again. As to this matter, China strongly opposes,” Hua Chunying, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, told reporters in Beijing.

Although China remains North Korea's biggest patron, relations have been severely strained since Kim took power and detonated a nuclear device a month before Xi Jinping took over as president of China.

Russia, which declared 2015 a “year of friendship” with North Korea, also condemned the detonation and called for international nuclear talks with North Korea to resume.

[North Korea’s leader: Scary funny]

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who gave Kim a rare foreign invitation for a visit last year, ordered a full study of data from Russia’s monitoring stations, said the spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.

“The first H-bomb test was successfully conducted,” the official Korean Central News Agency said in a statement issued shortly after a special announcement was broadcast on state-run television. It said it needed the weapon for defense against the United States, which it described as “the chieftain of aggression” and a “gang of cruel robbers.”

“Nothing is more foolish than dropping a hunting gun before herds of ferocious wolves,” the statement said in North Korea's trademark colorful prose.

But there were immediate questions about the claim. Nuclear experts noted that the yield appeared to be similar to North Korea’s three previous atomic tests, rather than the “enormous” yield that would be expected if it had been a thermonuclear explosion.

Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Calif., said Wednesday’s explosion looked very similar to past tests and was not enormous, suggesting it was not a hydrogen bomb.

Either way, Pyongyang’s action presents a new challenge to the outside world, which has struggled to find ways to end North Korea’s nuclear defiance.

“North Korea’s fourth test — in the context of repeated statements by U.S., Chinese and South Korean leaders — throws down the gauntlet to the international community to go beyond paper resolutions and find a way to impose real costs on North Korea for pursuing this course of action,” said Scott Snyder, a Korea expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.



Map of N.Korea IRBM & ICBM, whatever true or fake missile ...

The Iran announce to the world, they don't have nuke but the White House 'confirm' Iran making nuke ... The N.Korea announce to the world, they have hydrogen bomb but the White House no evidence to support 'nuke claim' ... Is it interesting ?! Diplomacy vs State Interest

 

[LowPost]

The Iran announce to the world, they don't have nuke but the White House 'confirm' Iran making nuke ... The N.Korea announce to the world, they have hydrogen bomb but the White House no evidence to support 'nuke claim' ... Is it interesting ?! Diplomacy vs State Interest

Check out this interesting Op-Ed article on SCMP:

UN condemnation of North Korea’s nuclear test smacks of double standards
Sherif Elgebeily says the Security Council’s outrage at Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions would seem more legitimate if wasn’t so biased, given other member states’ actions

Almost two years since the last round of United Nations sanctions, North Korea has tested its first hydrogen bomb. The reaction from the UN Security Council, predictably, has been one of outrage, judging the test to constitute such a flagrant violation of UN sanctions and threat to peace and security that an emergency meeting was convened within three hours.

This frantic appeal to emotion elicits fear within the international community but overlooks one simple fact: Pyongyang has as much of a legal right to nuclear proliferation as any other state.

It is no coincidence that the five permanent members of the Security Council all possess nuclear weapons. Nor should it be overlooked that Japan – a current non-permanent member and convenor of numerous emergency meetings on North Korea – held sufficient weapons-grade plutonium in 2013 for an estimated 5,000 nuclear bombs.

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) entered into force in 1970 with the aim of total prevention of nuclear weapon acquisition by non-nuclear weapon states. Despite the clear inequality of the subsequent creation of a nuclear-capable “members’ club”, 191 states have so far acceded, including North Korea in 1985. In 2003, when it withdrew from the treaty, it was – legally speaking – exercising its sovereign power.
Indeed, under the principles of international law enshrined in the Vienna Convention on the Laws of Treaties, all states maintain the right to enter into and withdraw from treaties. Nonetheless, in eight resolutions since 2006, the council has taken the unprecedented step of sanctioning Pyongyang for refusing to re-accede to the NPT, deeming its withdrawal a threat to international peace. Thus, the “members’ club” has placed itself above international law.

More troubling is the council’s selective bias. India and Pakistan, both non-signatories to the NPT, not only possess nuclear weapons but tested missile delivery systems last year. Neither has been forced to accede to the NPT, despite open hostility and the fact both tested their nuclear weapons in 1998 – long after the NPT came into force.

It may seem that any expansion of nuclear arsenals poses a threat to peace and security and therefore falls within the remit of the council’s mandate. However, the legitimacy of the council’s action is questionable when one example is isolated while ignoring analogous regional and international threats. If the council truly aspires to a future free of nuclear weaponry, it must cast aside its double standards and broaden its scope.

Dr Sherif Elgebeily is a part-time lecturer and assistant research officer at the Centre for Comparative and Public Law, University of Hong Kong

UN condemnation of North Korea’s nuclear test smacks of double standards | South China Morning Post

 

[Aepsilons]

BEIJING, January 27. /TASS/. Comprehensive strategic cooperation between China and Russia is successfully developing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Wednesday. "China fully agrees with what [Russian Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov said about Russian-Chinese relations ate yesterday’s press conference," Hua said.


"Comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Russia is getting a positive impetus for development at the high level," the diplomat added. "Last year the two sides celebrated together the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Second World War, coordinated the initiative of linking the Silk Road Economic Belt with the Eurasian Economic Union, successfully held a year of youth exchanges and effectively coordinated their positions on international issues.


Considerable progress was reached in the development of the two countries, as well as in ensuring global peace, security and stability," she noted.

"China is ready to work together with Russia on comprehensive implementation of agreements on cooperation reached by the leaders of the two countries," the spokesperson stressed adding that Moscow and Beijing "should make more progress in bilateral relations."

On Tuesday Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told an annual press conference that the relations between Moscow and Beijing are now at the highest level over the whole history of ties between the two countries.

http://tass.ru/en/politics/852484

 

[LowPost]

Strong China-Russia ties are the key to Eurasian integration and a stable East Asia. Japan ought to take note of this fact and benefit from it as well.

 

[Babu999]

Mediterranean should be used for fishing

 

[Babu999]

Very frequent exercises by Russia

 

[Super Falcon]

Russian uniform looks cool

 

[rott]

It seems china is afraid of India and Japan relations lol
And wanted to prove a point here that they got Russia on their side...

Oh wow India and Japan - so powerful. I am shivering already.

 

[LowPost]

Goodbye Petrodollar: Russia Accepts Yuan, Is Now China's Biggest Oil Partner

Russia is now the top crude exporter to China, the largest (or second largest, depending on whom you ask) oil demand growth country in the world.

At the start of the decade, Saudi Arabia enjoyed a 20% share of Chinese crude imports, while Russia was lagging far behind with 7%. Now the Saudis find themselves neck and neck with Moscow for the lead in Chinese market share, with both performing in the 13-16% range. But Russia's share continues to rise, as The Kingdom struggles to maintain a foothold.

Why? Analysts attribute Russia's huge market share growth to its willingness to accept yuan, while Saudi Arabia is still clinging to blood-soaked dollars. As Business Insider notes:



Interestingly, part of Russia's success in China has been attributed to its willingness to accept Chinese yuan denominated currency for its oil.

This is consistent with earlier forecasts about Russia's market share in China. Bloomberg reported back in July:

“Following Russia’s recent acceptance of the renminbi as payments for oil, we expect more record high oil imports ahead to China,” Gordon Kwan, the Hong Kong-based head of regional oil and gas research at Nomura Holdings Inc., said in an e-mail, referring to the Chinese currency. “If Saudi Arabia wants to recapture its number one ranking, it needs to accept the renminbi for oil payments instead of just the dollar.”

As both the head of the Eurasian Economic Union (and founding member of BRICS), as well as a major energy exporter, Russia is leading the charge against the dollar. And now other nations are following suit: Iran and India announced last month that they intend to settle all outstanding crude oil payments in rupees, as part of a joint strategy to dump the dollar and trade instead in national currencies.

The dollar is slowly losing its privileged place in international transactions. What this means for the United States is anyone's guess.

Goodbye Petrodollar: Russia Accepts Yuan, Is Now China's Biggest Oil Partner
----------------------------------
Russia steals Saudi's crown as China’s top oil supplier

Moscow is gaining momentum as the biggest seller of crude oil to China, with Russian crude supplies overtaking those from Saudi Arabia.

According to data from RBC Capital Markets, the Saudi share of Chinese crude imports at the beginning of the decade was about 20 percent, while Russia's was below 7 percent. The situation has changed.

"Russia is the biggest rival to the Saudis in the single-largest oil demand growth country in the world," Michael Tran, RBC Capital Markets' commodity strategist told Business Insider.

"The rising tide of Chinese growth has meant that notional volumes for both countries have increased in the years since, but Russia's gains have been outsized," he added.

Tran said Saudi Arabia now finds itself “neck and neck with Moscow for the lead in Chinese market share, with both jostling in the 13-14percent range, yet the momentum resides with the latter."

Over the past five years, Saudi Arabia increased exports to China by only about 120,000 barrels a day while Russia managed to increase exports by 550,000 barrels a day in the same period.

Russia managed to overtake the Saudis as the biggest crude exporter to China four times in 2015. In the past five years Saudi Arabia has lost the top spot only six times.

Statistics from China's General Administration of Customs (GAC) showed that in December Beijing bought 4.81 million tons of crude oil from Russia. The volume was up 30 percent compared with the previous year.

Imports from Saudi Arabia dropped 1.2 percent year on year to 4.47 million tons. The fall was blamed on a hike in the official Saudi selling price and the closure of several large Chinese refineries for planned overhauls.

"Saudi Arabia is losing its crown as its selling prices in Asia haven't been attractive enough," Gao Jian, an analyst at SCI International, a Shandong-based energy consultant, told Bloomberg back in June.

Analysts say that Russia’s readiness to accept Chinese yuan as payment for its oil is one of the key tipping points.

The Russian-Chinese financial cooperation program includes a three-year ruble-yuan currency swap worth more than $20 billion. The swap agreement was signed in 2014 by the central banks of Moscow and Beijing with the aim of boosting trade using national currencies.

In November, the Central Bank of Russia included the Chinese yuan in its reserve currency basket.
https://www.rt.com/business/331139-russia-china-saudi-arabia-oil/
Russia steals Saudi's crown as China’s top oil supplier — RT Business

 

[Nan Yang]

“Following Russia’s recent acceptance of the renminbi as payments for oil, we expect more record high oil imports ahead to China,” Gordon Kwan, the Hong Kong-based head of regional oil and gas research at Nomura Holdings Inc., said in an e-mail, referring to the Chinese currency. “If Saudi Arabia wants to recapture its number one ranking, it needs to accept the renminbi for oil payments instead of just the dollar.”

If that happen, there will be regime change in Saudi Arabia.