European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
The accord, signed by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, formalizes Japan's involvement in a new EU-Asia "connectivity" plan that is set to be backed by a 60 billion euro ($65.48 billion) EU guarantee fund, development banks and private investors.
Comment: Eat dirt, European peoples made to bail out Western banks in '08! The EU is sitting on a pile of cash...
"Whether it be a single road or a single port, when the EU and Japan undertake something, we are able to build sustainable, rules-based connectivity from the Indo-Pacific to the Western Balkans and Africa," Abe told an EU-Asia forum in Brussels.
Comment: 'Rules-based', as in 'the rules-based international order', as in the status quo of Western hegemony. This is a dig at Russia, China and others, who supposedly 'play dirty' by not being warmongering effete freaks.
Since 2013, China has launched construction projects across more than 60 countries, known as the Belt and Road Initiative, seeking a network of land and sea links with Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.
"The sea route that leads to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic must be open," he added, referring to the need to prevent projects funded by Beijing and its vast foreign exchange reserves dominating transport routes.
Comment: As in, China does it to 'close' the world around its supposed hegemonic designs, which is ultimately possible, but in the current environment smacks of such much butt-hurt at losing Western hegemony.
Juncker also vowed to help build infrastructure "without mountains of debt" or a reliance "on a single country".
Comment: As in, that's how China's doing it. Except that it isn't!
That was a veiled reference to Chinese-financed projects that have sent debts in some central Asian and Balkan countries soaring after they embarked on building bridges, roads and tunnels they could ill-afford.
Comment: There are long-term debts - like, REALLY long-term. Unlike Western IMF debts, which if you don't start repaying within a few years, means you surrender your sovereignty to Western technocrats.
The EU and Japan also want stricter environmental standards.
Comment: Oh yeah, the green card. 'Clean and green like us!'
EU officials said they are concerned about what they see as a Chinese investment model which lends to countries for projects they may not need, making them reliant on China once under way. Poor countries across Asia and Africa have seized on the attractive Chinese loans.
Comment: The message here is bilateral Chinese infrastructure deals are dodgy because those dumb Africans and Asians are easily duped, whereas if WE were allowed to make decisions for them, they'd be grand...
A Chinese-funded highway to link Montenegro's Adriatic coast to landlocked neighbor Serbia has so indebted Montenegro that the International Monetary Fund has told the country it cannot afford to finish the project.
Comment: Yeah, the IMF! A POLITICAL organization, not a credible long-term lender.
Although not all European and Japanese money will be spent in Asia, the Commission's strategy makes spending on infrastructure links with Asia official EU policy involving the EU's common budget.
In their 10-point accord, the EU and Japan promised to pay "utmost attention" to countries' "fiscal capacity and debt-sustainability".
Comment: Japan isn't just opposing China in the development of international infrastructure; it has also just upgraded China as a threat to Japan's national security:
From Fort Russ: This is obviously an attempt at an 'encirclement strategy' to 'contain China/Russia'.