Americas
After The US Presidential Acquittal: Vox Populi, Public Mass and America’s Future
“Who is to decide which is the grimmer sight: withered hearts, or empty skulls?” -Honoré de Balzac
Virtually all US politicians, irrespective of party, are fond of celebrating “The American People.” As the ultimate fallback script for any candidate – whether challenger or incumbent – no other phrase can seem so appealingly quaint. Noteworthy, too, is the ubiquitous mantra’s changed meaning over time.
In essence, there has taken place a significant transformation from the mantra’s original eighteenth-century or Age of Enlightenment significations.
This transformation, once it has been more fairly recognized and acknowledged, is ironic, bitterly ironic.
There is more to discuss. Pertinent history can always be further clarifying. Though counter to various present-day misunderstandings, America’s founders had displayed a far-reaching disdain for any “voice of the people.”To Edmund Randolph, the core evils from which the new country was suffering could be discovered in the “turbulence and follies of democracy.” Elbridge Gerry actually spoke of democracy as “the worst of all political evils.” For his part, Roger Sherman had hoped, and without evident embarrassment, that “the people…have as little to do as may be about the government.”
Oddly, perhaps, these earlier sentiments are not generally apparent in present-day United States. Not at all. The reason is plausibly straightforward. It is because, at least for most Americans, disciplined learning of any kind is too palpably unpleasant to be “cost effective.”
It’s not easy to do.
Prima facie, therefore, it is anathema.
What about Alexander Hamilton? This quintessentially American darling of today’s favorite Broadway musical once exclaimed: “The turbulent and changing masses seldom judge or determine right.” Accordingly, Hamilton had sought a reliable institutional “remedy” for popular rule. More precisely, he wanted a “permanent authority” to “check the imprudence of democracy.”
“The people,” Hamilton had summarized caustically, “are a great beast.”
And the “imprudence of democracy.” How many Americans could possibly imagine such a phrase as one originally acceptable or even foundational? The answer is obvious, especially when the present-day American president is enthusiastically cheered precisely because of his indisputable illiteracy.
To a verifiable extent, George Washington found himself in the same philosophic camp as Hamilton. Soon to become the nation’s first president, he urged convention delegates not to produce a document merely “to please the people.” Washington had argued, inter alia, that any self-serving search for public approval would quickly prove contrary to any reasonable calculations of national interest.
To wit, Washington was an early American leader who could still value real learning.
There is more. Any misconceived searches for public approval would have been contrary to the American-celebrated Age of Enlightenment. The new nation, after all, was built expressly upon the philosophic and legal writings of Grotius, Pufendorf, Voltaire, Diderot, Locke, Hobbes, Montesquieu and Rousseau.[1]
Is there a single person in today’s White House who could even recognize (let alone actually read) a single one of these names?
It’s a silly question.
Today, largely because there is so little reading of history by “the people” (especially at the White House and in the Senate), Americans neglect that the country’s founders displayed a conspicuous distrust of all democratic governance. Warned the young Governeur Morris, in a typically harsh metaphor: “The mob begin to think and reason, poor reptiles . . . They bask in the sun, and ere noon they will bite, depend on it.”
Much as Americans might not now care to admit, the nation’s founding fathers were largely correct in their anti-populist reservations, but nonetheless for the wrong reasons. In the United States, We the people have displayed a more-or-less consistent deference to “lawful authority.” Still, this same people has demonstrated a persisting unwillingness to care for itself as a coherent body of authentic individuals. Should there be any doubt about this potentially lethal unwillingness, we need look back no further than the latest presidential “rally.”
Now, finally, it is high time for candor, especially in the rabidly anti-historic and anti-intellectual Trump Era. A “mob” does effectively defile any reborn American eruptions of “greatness,” but it is not the same mob feared by Hamilton, Sherman and Morris. What more do we really need to know about this mob?
And who actually belongs to such an increasingly rancorous American society?
In brief, the constituent “members” are rich and poor, black and white, easterner and westerner, southerner and mid-westerner, educated and uneducated, young and old, male and female, Jew and Christian and Muslim and Hindu and Buddhist and atheist. It is, at least in some tangible respects, exactly as the founding fathers had originally feared. Inter alia, it is a populist mob, markedly so; still, it is not by any means exclusively or excessively “blue collar.” Its most distinguishing features are not poverty or lack of manners or any absence of formal education.
They concern the witting absence of any decent regard for wisdom or serious learning. This absence includes many with very respectable university degrees and professions.
During the past several years, at least in these particular matters, America has gone from bad to worse. The overriding goal for literally millions has become painfully and irremediably obvious. This objective is a presumptively comforting presidential dispensation to scream nonsense, pure nonsense, endlessly, preferably rote, and in chorus.
Comforted by rhythmic and repetitive primal chants (one should think here of the marooned and eventually murderous English schoolboys in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies), millions of Americans have freely abandoned any meaningful responsibilities to understand what is being cheered. At Trump presidential rallies, just as in the United States Senate during a State of the Union address, serious books or ideas are mentioned only sotto voce, and multi-layered intellectual content remains very intentionally ostracized . What matters most amid the carefully-orchestrated presidential rancor in the United States is the warmly comforting embrace of a sympathetic “crowd.”
Nothing more.
“Intellect rots the brain,” roared Third Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels back in 1935.
“I love the poorly educated,” proclaimed candidate Donald Trump back in 2016.
“We’ll build a beautiful wall, with a beautiful door….”
“Intellect rots the brain.”
In large measure, the American People now exhibit an intellectually unambitious conglomeration of souls,[2] one eager to learn only what is presumptively “practical.” To be sure, legible university affiliations are still valued on sweatshirts and automobile bumper stickers, but not for anything having to do with genuine education. Rather, these affiliations are valued along with their respective sports teams for another overriding reason.
This reason is to be able to say to the world, succinctly and convincingly, “I belong.”
For Americans today, there can be no greater accomplishment.
Accordingly, what has emerged in Trump’s polarizing America is a commoditized mass, one roughly equivalent to the ancient Greek hoi polloi or the Roman plebs. From such a proudly docile coming-together, nothing analytic or excellent should ever be expected.[3]
Now, Americans cheer only “USA.” “USA.” “USA.” This is the primal chant of belonging that one must expect to hear, even on the floor of the US Congress. This is nothing less that the culminating rhythm of a major nation’s historical and intellectual devolution.
There is a long-recognizable history to all this. Prophetic expectations of such a mob were widely-circulated among America’s founding fathers, primarily by way of Livy: “Nothing is so valueless,” said Livy, “as the minds of the multitude.” Recalling this ancient Latin author, America’s core enemy today is less an adversarial nation than an insistent analytic docility, a grimly uninquiring national spirit that not only knows nothing of truth, but determinedly wants to know nothing of truth.
In his Notes on Virginia, Thomas Jefferson once proposed an improved plan of elementary schooling in which “twenty of the best geniuses will be raked from the rubbish annually.” Today, of course, it is inconceivable that any American president or presidential aspirant could ever refer to his fellow citizens as “rubbish.” Yet, this openly crude analogy accurately expressed the unvarnished sentiment of America’s most famous early “populist.” Jefferson, lest we forget, was the cerebral founder and future president who (having already read such key Enlightenment thinkers as John Locke and Thomas Hobbes) drafted the American Declaration of Independence.
Going forward, the “American People” have one manifestly overriding obligation. This is the responsibility to disprove Alexander Hamilton and Donald Trump by embracing a virtually new political ethos. This expectedly more promising Vox Populi would be inspired not by any perpetual fears of severance from the warmly-submissive American mass, but by more devotedly intentional cultivations of personal intellect and civic courage.[4]
All this will take time, of course, but there is simply no alternative posture for “The American People” to assume.
What shall
be concluded? This mandatory eleventh-hour embrace may represent America’s last
graspable chance for both personal growth and collective survival; that is, a
final and indispensable opportunity to avoid Balzac’s “withered
hearts” and his “empty
skulls.” In our world’s rapidly “advancing” nuclear age, it
could even represent America’s utterly last chance, period.[5]
[1] A common theme in these classical writings is the unequivocal “oneness” of world legal imperatives, and, correspondingly, the inherent intersections of national (municipal) and international law. Regarding the United States in particular, Mr. Justice Gray, in delivering the judgment of the US Supreme Court in Paquete Habana (1900), declared: “International law is part of our law, and must be ascertained and administered by the courts of justice of appropriate jurisdiction….” (175 U.S. 677(1900)) See also: Opinion in Tel-Oren vs. Libyan Arab Republic (726 F. 2d 774 (1984)). The specific incorporation of treaty law into US municipal law is expressly codified at Art. 6 of the US Constitution, the so-called “Supremacy Clause.”
[2] Both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung thought of “soul” (in German, Seele) as the very essence of a human being. Neither Freud nor Jung ever provides a precise definition of the term, but clearly it was not intended by either in any ordinary religious sense. For both, it was a still-recognizable and critical seat of both mind and passions in this life. Interesting, too, in the present context, is that Freud explained his already-predicted decline of America by various express references to “soul.” Freud was plainly disgusted by any civilization so apparently unmoved by considerations of true “consciousness” (e.g., awareness of intellect and literature), and even thought that the crude American commitment to perpetually shallow optimism and to material accomplishment at any cost would occasion sweeping psychological misery.
[3] “The mass-man,” we learn from Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y’ Gasset (The Revolt of the Masses, 1930), “has no attention to spare for reasoning; he learns only in his own flesh.”
[4] One should be reminded of Bertrand Russell’s trenchant observation in Principles of Social Reconstruction (1916): “Men fear thought more than they fear anything else on earth – more than ruin, more even than death.”
[5] See, for example, by this writer: https://warroom.armywarcollege.edu/articles/nuclear-decision-making/
Quad foreign ministers met in New York for the second time this year and the seventh time since 2019. The four-nation grouping’s ambit of cooperation has clearly expanded and diversified over the years. What were the key talking points this time? I analyse.
The foreign ministers of India, Japan, Australia and the United States – four key maritime democracies in the Indo-Pacific – met on the sidelines of the 78th annual session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York on September 22. This was their seventh meeting since 2019 and the second of 2023. Notably, exactly four years ago, this four-nation Quad was raised to the foreign ministers’ level amid a UNGA session. Earlier in 2023, the ministers met in March on the sidelines of the G20 ministerial in New Delhi and in May, this year, the Quad leaders’ summit was hosted by Japan on the sidelines of the G7 summit. Having met twice in 2022 as well, the ministers congregated six times in person and virtually once so far.
The previous ministerial in New Delhi saw the four-nation grouping making a reference to an extra-regional geopolitical issue for the first time – Ukraine – and also the initiation of a new Working Group mechanism on counter-terrorism, a key agenda item for India and the United States, among other themes of discussion. Following the seventh meeting, India’s foreign minister Dr S. Jaishankar tweeted, “Always value our collective contribution to doing global good”, while U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken remarked that the grouping is “vital to our shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific, and together we reaffirmed our commitment to uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter”.
Diversifying ambit of cooperation
The ministers have clearly doubled down on the commitments taken during their previous deliberations, particularly to improve capacity-building for regional players. The joint statement that followed the meeting read, “The Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness is supporting regional partners combat illicit maritime activities and respond to climate-related and humanitarian events.” Similarly, the Working Group on maritime security promised “practical and positive outcomes” for the region. Prior to the recent ministerial, the Working Group on counter-terrorism conducted a Consequence Management Exercise that “explored the capabilities and support Quad countries could offer regional partners in response to a terrorist attack”, the joint readout mentions.
Later this year, the U.S. island state of Hawaii will host the Counter-terrorism Working Group’s meeting and tabletop exercise, which will focus on countering the use of emerging technologies for terrorist activities, while the Working Group on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) will be convened in Australia’s Brisbane for its second tabletop exercise. Earlier in August, this year, all four Quad navies participated in Exercise Malabar for the fourth consecutive year, off Sydney, the first hosted by Australia. However, as in previous meetings, the ministers didn’t specifically mention Russia or China with regard to the situations in Ukraine and maritime east Asia respectively.
On the Ukraine question, the ministers expressed their “deep concern”, taking note of its “terrible and tragic humanitarian consequences” and called for “comprehensive, just, and lasting peace”. In a veiled reference to Russia, the ministers rebuffed the “use, or threat of use, of nuclear weapons”, underscoring the respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states, and called for the resumption of the UN-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative, which allows for the export of food grains and fertilizers from Ukraine to world markets via a maritime humanitarian corridor, amid the ongoing conflict with Russia.
Similarly, in another veiled reference to continuing Chinese belligerence and lawfare in maritime east Asia, the ministers stressed upon the need to adhere to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and to maintain “freedom of navigation and overflight consistent with UNCLOS”, reiterating their “strong opposition to any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion”, including with respect to maritime claims in the South and East China Seas. Going further ahead, the ministers expressed their concern on “the militarisation of disputed features, the dangerous use of coast guard and maritime militia vessels, and efforts to disrupt other countries’ offshore exploitation activities”. The joint readout also had mentions of North Korea and Myanmar.
The evident and the inferred
Today, almost all the areas of cooperation of Quad countries happen to be the areas of strategic competition with China, the rapid rise of which necessitated the coming together of the four nations, even though this is not openly acknowledged. In this new great game unfolding in the Indo-Pacific, the U.S.-led Quad is trying to balance China’s overwhelming initiatives to capture the support of smaller and middle powers in the region and around the world. Placid initiatives such as the Open Radio Access Network, the private sector-led Investors Network, Cybersecurity Partnership, Cable Connectivity Partnership and the Pandemic Preparedness Exercises should be read in this context.
With the rise of Quad in parallel with the rise of China and other minilateral groupings in the Indo-Pacific such as the AUKUS (a grouping of Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States), the existing regional framework based on the slow-moving, consensus-based Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was put to test. However, allaying all doubts, Quad deliberations at both the ministerial and summit levels continued to extend their support to ASEAN’s centrality in the region and also for the ASEAN-led regional architecture that also includes the East Asia Summit and the ASEAN Regional Forum. Despite somewhat differing regional outlooks, the Quad likes to see itself as “complementary” to the ASEAN, rather than an “alternative” to its pan-regional influence.
India, the only non-ally of the U.S. in the Quad, will host the fourth in-person Quad leaders’ summit in 2024. The Asian giant is often dubbed as the weakest link in the grouping, owing to its friendly ties with Russia, but other members intent to keep India’s bilateral equations with other countries away from the interior dynamics of the grouping, signalling an acknowledgement of India’s growing geopolitical heft in the region and beyond. This seems to be subtly reflected in the stance taken by individual Quad members in the recent India-Canada diplomatic row, in which they made sure not to provoke New Delhi or to touch upon sensitive areas, even though a fellow Western partner is involved on the other side.
| Quad Foreign Ministers Meeting | Month & Year | Venue |
| First | September 2019 | New York |
| Second | October 2020 | Tokyo |
| Third | February 2021 | Virtual |
| Fourth | February 2022 | Melbourne |
| Fifth | September 2022 | New York |
| Sixth | March 2023 | New Delhi |
| Seventh | September 2023 | New York |
NB:- All three Quad ministerials in New York were held on the sidelines of the respective annual sessions of the UN General Assembly i.e., the first, the fifth, and the seventh meetings.
On the multilateral front, the four ministers reaffirmed their support for the UN, the need to uphold “mutually determined rules, norms, and standards, and to deepen Quad’s cooperation in the international system, and also batted for a comprehensive reform of the UN, including the expansion of permanent and non-permanent seats in the Security Council. While China and Russia, two powerful permanent members of the Security Council, continue to denounce the Quad as an “exclusionary bloc”, the Quad ministers and leaders tend to tone down any security role for the grouping.
However, a recent comment made by Vice Admiral Karl Thomas of the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet during this year’s Exercise Malabar is noteworthy. He said the war games were “not pointed toward any one country”, rather it would improve the ability of the four forces to work with each other and “the deterrence that our four nations provide as we operate together as a Quad is a foundation for all the other nations operating in this region”. Even in the absence of a security treaty, in a way he hinted at the grouping’s desire to cherish its collective strength across all fronts and to check on hegemonic tendencies that may manifest in the region from time to time.
Operating across British Columbia (BC), Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario, gangs made up of Indo-Canadian Punjabis – Brothers Keepers, Dhak-Duhre, Dhaliwal, Sanghera, Malli-Buttar, and several such, are involved in arms trafficking, racketeering, extortion, narco trafficking, money laundering, and not the least, assassinations. Formed in 2004 and mandated to disrupt and suppress organised crime in B.C. the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU-BC), has warned the public of the nexus of Punjabi-Canadians to violence.
In the murders of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala and Ripudaman Singh Malik, acquitted in the tragic 1985 Air India Kanishka terror-bombing case, the conspicuous involvement of these Indo-Canadian gangs with notorious criminals Goldy Brar and Lawrence Bishnoi at the helm, manifested itself.
On June 18 Sikh Hardeep Singh Nijjar, was gunned down as he left his gurdwara in Surrey, B.C., which has the highest proportions of Punjabi Canadians. Nijjar had entered Canada in 1995 on a fake passport and claimed asylum on arrest at Toronto. In B.C. he married a local who sponsored his immigration and he was subsequently awarded Canadian citizenship. Brazenly propounding anti-India separatist sentiments, Nijjar was even placed on Canada’s no-fly list and Interpol’s red corner notice. Alongwith gangsters Arshdeep Singh Dala, Maninder Singh Bual, and Mandeep Singh Dhaliwal his outfit Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) was involved in contract killings in Punjab. Gang-related killings account for a third of all homicides in Canada’s British Columbia.
Despite this disconcerting background of Nijjar’s ties to organised crime gangs in Canada, on September 18, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged the involvement of “agents of the Indian government” in the killing of Nijjar. A claim outrightly rejected by New Delhi as “absurd” and “motivated.” If Trudeau was looking to further impair an increasingly forbidding bilateral relationship, he succeeded. Canada and India have expelled a senior diplomat each and negotiations for a free trade agreement stand suspended.
There is a palpable perversity to Canada’s position on the Khalistan issue. In 1982, Trudeau’s father and then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau
had rejected Late PM Indira Gandhi’s demands for extradition of Khalistani terrorist Talwinder Singh Parmar, who went on to execute the bombing of Air India Flight Kanishka, killing 329 people in 1985.
Alarmed by the presence of Sikh secessionists among the diaspora, former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh during his 2010 trip to attend the G20 summit in Toronto, asked Canada “to stop people from using religious places to promote extremism.” Canadian MP Sukh Dhaliwal, had introduced a motion in the Canadian parliament to declare the 1984 riots a “genocide”. Fast forward to 2023, G20 under PM Modi there was no attempt at all to put even a vaguely positive spin on the India-Canada equation.
The timing of Trudeau’s accusation just days after the G20 summit in New Delhi where he says he brought Khalistani extremism and “foreign interference” “directly to PM Modi in no uncertain terms” smacks of umbrage at being at the receiving end of a very hard-hitting message that the ‘extremist elements in Canada are “promoting secessionism and inciting violence against Indian.’
The Khalistan issue has got a fresh lease of life after the advent of the Justine Trudeau government. With just 32.2 percent of the popular vote, Liberal leader Trudeau has the least electoral support in Canadian history, and was backed by Jagmeet Singh’s New Democratic Party (NDP) which openly supports the Khalistan Referendum on Canadian soil.
Canada’s Conservative opposition leader, Pierre Poilievre, has urged Trudeau to show the evidence that the government has in hand. Notwithstanding this current posture the Conservative Party (CP) too, has in the past caved in to the Sikh vote bank. In 2018 when its condemnation of ‘glorification of terrorism’ was objected to by the World Sikh Organisation, the CP dropped its ‘anti-Khalistan’ motion in the House of Commons.
There is beyond sufficient evidence, to India’s contention that Canada, and other western nations including US, UK, and Australia have allowed cadres of separatist violent Khalistani groups to thrive. The UK recently set up a £95,000 fund to enhance its understanding of the threat posed by Khalistan extremism. While the amount set aside to tackle pro-Khalistan elements is not substantial, it acknowledges that a Sikh radicalisation problem exists in the west.
Sikh temples and organisations abroad orchestrate Remembrance Days for ‘Operation Blue Star’ on June 6 and ‘Sikh Massacre’ on November 5, that serve as cultural repertoires and focal points of advocating Khalistani extremism. This year at the remembrance day parade, Khalistan supporters in Ontario exhibited a female figure in a blood-stained white saree with turbaned men pointing guns at her, to celebrate the assassination of late PM Indira Gandhi. The poster behind the scene read “Revenge for the attack on Darbar Sahib.”
Reacting to this macabre tableau, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar said, “Frankly, we are at a loss to understand other than the requirements of vote bank politics why anybody would do this … I think there is a larger underlying issue about the space which is given to separatists, to extremists, to people who advocate violence. I think it is not good for relationships, not good for Canada.”
At multiple diplomatic and security talks, India has raised the issue of wanted terrorists and gangsters only to be defied by the Canadian government with non-committance and brazen support for extremist Sikhs. And yet Canada’s NATO allies and partners in the ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence sharing agreement, the United States and Australia, have expressed “deep concerns” over the issue. Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said, “We are deeply concerned about the allegations referenced by Prime Minister Trudeau.” Foreign Secretary of the UK, James Cleverly, posted UK’s reaction on platform X “We are in regular contact with our Canadian partners about serious allegations raised in the Canadian Parliament.” One wonders if this allegation of targeted killing by India is in retaliation to New Delhi’s steady favour of Russia, and has been levelled after reports of a brokered American deal with Pakistan for weapons transfer to Ukraine in lieu of an IMF bailout emerged.
Admonishing Canada on X, former Foreign Secretary Nirupama Menon Rao said, “Canada has an extremely spotty and very, very poor record on the whole issue of Khalistanis in Canada. The support these lawless elements have received under the cover of what is called freedom of expression and democratic rights of citizens…it must control such elements with a firm hand and cannot allow them to run free to foster terrorism and violence in our country.”
Amid the hectic media coverage there was speculation that ‘Trudeau’s allegations have put the White House in an especially tight spot.’ But this were swifty checked by Adrienne Watson in her X post, “reports that we rebuffed Canada in any way on this are flatly false. We are coordinating and consulting with Canada closely on this issue.”
The manner in which copious evidence on Khalistan separatists handed over to the Canadian side have gone unaddressed and yet Trudeau’s allegation invoked strong reactions from other western nations, implies that this has moved beyond our bilaterals with Ottawa. It will have ramifications on how India deals with its strong G7 allies, especially the US.
For India the existence of Khalistani extremists and their alignment with organised crime in Canada poses security exigencies. India must at this juncture refrain from a broad generalisation of Sikh diaspora as secessionist, an incrimination that was implied during the Sikh-dominated farmers’ movement.
Political parties must rise above partisan politics over separatist movements that are a threat to nation security. Voices from Punjab attest that Khalistan supporters remain ‘fringe’ and ‘on the margins.’ Even among expatriate Sikh community leaders have challenged the anti-India narrative laid out by Khalistanis and their supporters, despite the fact that they, and the community there, regularly face harassment and threats of violence from expatriate Khalistanis. Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh states that Nijjar’s murder was the result of a factional feud within the management of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara situated at Surrey and that Trudeau had “walked into a trap owing to vote bank politics.”
New Delhi must ensure that overseas Sikh communities which have tried to counter pro-Khalistan disinformation shall not be left alone to defend themselves.
In a significant development that underscores the changing dynamics of global politics and economics, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro recently signed several bilateral cooperation agreements in Beijing, highlighting the changing dynamics of world politics and economics. China’s determination to participate in partnerships that promote economic stability and prosperity demonstrates its unwavering commitment to global economic recovery.
The agreements signify a strengthening of their partnerships and span a variety of fields, including trade, the economy, and tourism. The cooperation has been upgraded to an “All-weather strategic partnership,” reflecting the continued dedication of both countries to the advancement and development of the other. The decision by China and Venezuela to strengthen their ties comes as the world is witnessing a transformation in international alliances and trade partnerships.
The economic collaboration between the two countries is one of the most significant aspects of this new era of partnership. The recent agreements are expected to further cement Venezuela’s ties with China, which has long been the country’s major trading partner.Investments in infrastructure development and oil and gas exploration and production are part of the cooperation in the energy industry.
During his visit to China, President Maduro expressed his optimism for the relationship’s future, stating it heralds the start of a “new era” for both nations. Venezuela, which has recently experienced economic difficulties, views China as a dependable ally that can aid in reviving its economy. China, on the other hand, sees Venezuela as a crucial friend in the region and a valuable supply of natural resources.
China and Venezuela’s energy cooperation has broad implications. As the globe grapples with concerns about energy security and climate change, this alliance might have a big impact on the global energy landscape. China’s investments in Venezuela’s oil sector can stabilize oil prices and provide a more consistent supply of crude oil to the global market.
Aside from the energy industry, both countries have pledged to deepen their collaboration in a variety of other economic areas. Venezuela can benefit from China’s expertise in agricultural technologies and infrastructural development in one area. Venezuela may enhance food production and reduce its reliance on imports by modernizing its agricultural sector with Chinese assistance, thereby increasing food security for its citizens.
Additionally, both countries have enormous potential in the tourism sector. Venezuela has incredible landscapes such as the famous Angel Falls and virgin Caribbean beaches, which may appeal to Chinese tourists looking for new travel experiences. Similarly, China’s rich history and culture have always captured the interest of visitors from all over the world, including Venezuelans. The tourist accords aim to make travel between the two countries easier, to foster cultural interaction, and to develop tourism-related enterprises.
Furthermore, the strengthened relationship extends beyond economic interests to include political and strategic considerations. Both countries have reaffirmed their commitment to mutual support in international forums and to no interference in the other’s internal affairs. This strategic partnership is consistent with China’s aim of establishing a multipolar world and strengthening cooperation across developing nations.
The collaboration between China and Venezuela should be seen in the larger Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) initiative. The BRI seeks to establish a network of economic and infrastructure partnerships across Asia, Europe, Africa, and Latin America. A deeper integration of Venezuela into China’s global economic vision through its participation in the BRI could create new trade and investment opportunities.
The potential for economic development in Venezuela is one of the most notable benefits of the China-Venezuela cooperation. In recent years, the South American country has suffered severe economic issues, including high inflation, financial sanctions, and political unrest. China’s investments and assistance can help stabilize Venezuela’s economy, generate jobs, and raise inhabitants’ living standards.
The China-Venezuela connection is a key milestone in the shifting global political and economic landscape. In a changing world order, this partnership has the potential to provide Venezuela with economic prosperity, stability, as well as greater autonomy.
-
Defense4 days agoPakistan-Turkey Defense Ties and Policy Options
-
Green Planet4 days agoSustainability in the Age of Climate Change: Demography, Resources, and Action
-
World News4 days agoUN: A divided world faces a huge number of problems
-
Terrorism3 days agoAl-Assad -Xi Jinping: Confronting Turkestan Islamic Party and its relations with ISIS
-
Economy3 days agoUniqlo vs. Indonesia: A Battle of Bargaining Power Position
-
World News3 days agoThe Alliance of Sahel States
-
Europe3 days agoChina-Germany Win-Win Cooperation
-
Southeast Asia3 days agoJustice for Indonesia’s Sea Sand Export Policy: Deprivation of Environmental Rights