... of Russia and China results in an unprecedented regional Rubik’s cube, except no colour is the same and the two players are colour-blind with suspicion and a long history of flip-flopping between sides (e.g. China's Détente with USA, Russia's Détente with USA etc).
Power Triangle - Sino-Russian Mutuality on US:
The first and foremost issue that Russia and China can find a common ground on, as Mitrova sees, is the joint dislike of the US hegemony. It is a ...
... and European sovereign and corporate bonds. This historically unprecedented ‘savings glut’ flooded the markets with cheap money. This, coupled with low interest rates across the whole eurozone, fuelled credit and real estate bubbles in the USA and Europe, which burst in 2008-9 amid the global ‘credit crunch’.
At first, this led to a pan-European banking crisis, followed by a sovereign debt crisis triggered by Greece’s unsustainable public deficit and debt levels in late ...
... companies and academics nevertheless did not abandon the possibility that it could become a reliable partner for South Korea gas needs. Perhaps, in the perfect world, where the last delegate to DPRK is not Denis Rodman and it does not want to destroy USA, both South and North could cooperate in all fields, including energy matters.
At a junction – ES-2030:
ES-2030 follows a tradition of Russia’s psychological affection to large scale projects with political elites at the helm....
... "no single nation or group can dominate world's affairs"; this could be just rhetoric, but it still aids to dispel some peoples worry that Russia's Chinese neighbour could be a threat, while also calling for the final end of USA's hegemony (See: SCMP). Albeit, it is hard to see China not taking the lead regionally and globally in the future as it clearly dominates, particularly in the BRICs (economically and politically). The days of it being the young brother of ...
... market for all exporters.
- Shale Gas Revolution:
The US ‘shale gas revolution’ has made this previously substantial net-importer of gas into almost a self-sustainable entity, with a net-equal position between its imports and exports. USA even had to convert its now useless LNG terminals (which it first built at a massive cost to assure gas supplies in early 2000’s) into shale gas export stations; albeit their potential is limited due to original LNG terminals being inflexible....
... the other, it upturns this view by importing highly polluting, albeit relatively cheap, US coal. Aside from sending a bad message to developing nations in regards to reducing CO2 emissions, which partially due to this move are now increasing in the E.U., it also breeds uncertainty as this flip-flopping makes the European continent less predictable for Russia. A clear distinction is apparent as Europe has previously acted shrewdly when conducting business with a well packed bargaining arsenal which ...
... will decided the end price. Unless Russia offsets the cost for gas from the current $400 per 1000 cubic meters, it could begin to lose market share – which has not changed in the last decade. The decision must be well calculated, yet quick, as USA has almost achieved independence from energy imports due to shale which could supply North America, Australian shale could supply Asia, Israel has off-shore shale potential, Middle East could make a stable return to supply Europe and if China gets ...
