Russia/China/India axis.

According to the December 9 Asia Times, the Russian government of "ex"-KGB officer Vladimir Putin is calling "for a Moscow-New Delhi-Beijing axis, an alliance of three nuclear-armed countries of some 2.5 billion people that theoretically would be able to balance U.S. power in coming years." This alignment "would make a great contribution to global security," Putin stated during a visit to India's capital, New Delhi.

The Times points out that "A 'strategic triangle' linking Russia, India and China was first suggested by former Russian premier (and incidentally Saddam Hussein's old friend) Yevgeny Primakov in 1998." (Primakov, not coincidentally, presided over the KGB's Arab terrorist network in the late 1980s.) Beijing was initially cool to the idea, reports the Times, while "New Delhi remained noncommittal."

However, since 2002, the "strategic triangle" concept has been revived. The three potential strategic allies "are all understood to have a number of converging interests that could add substance to the axis talk. All three were opposed to the war on Iraq and protested against what they viewed as a rejection of the rules of the international game. They continue to back the primacy of the UN Security Council in solving crises.... There is also a growing arms sale relationship between Russia and the two Asian countries. The trade provides Moscow with billions of much-needed dollars and important arms-export markets, while Beijing and New Delhi receive sophisticated armaments ranging from combat aircraft to submarines." Further illustrating the growing strategic alliance between Moscow and Beijing is the news that "China and Russia will soon hold their first joint military exercises in China," according to a December 13 Reuters story, Speaking at a meeting in Beijing with Chinese Communist Party chief Hu Jintao and top military officials, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov announced: "We have agreed that for the first time ever we will be holding substantial military exercises on Chinese territory in 2005."

In the meantime, China and India--which boast rapidly growing economies, in large measure due to U.S. "outsourcing"--are building an anti-U.S. economic front. "India, China and other countries have started dumping [the] U.S. dollar quietly and buying euros," reported the November 27 India Daily. "That put very serious pressure on the dollar.... [T]here are many other countries, especially oil-rich Middle Eastern countries, running away from [the] dollar."