''China unveils grand Eurasian strategy''

From Indian Punchline
By MK Bhadrakumar

''The meeting of the China-Eurasian Forum in Urumqi, Xinjiang, on Sunday makes an interesting move in regional cooperation on the part of Beijing. The presence of Premier Wen Jiabao at the meeting signified the high importance that Beijing attaches to this initiative. In sum, China is directly wooing its Eurasian allies with audacious offers of building a New Silk Road.

Clearly, the Chinese initiative outstrips Russia’s “Eurasian Union” project , which is yet to be kickstarted. Indeed, China is outstripping both the US and Russia. While the New Silk Road Initiative is predicated on the stabilization of Afghanistan, Russia’s Eurasian Union project has got hopelessly entangled with Moscow’s changing equations with the Central Asian countries. 

For the world at large, the clash of the three grand Eurasian strategies – mooted by Washington, Moscow and Beijing — now becomes yet another fascinating spectacle of the Great Game.''

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