by Harley Schlanger, LaRouche PAC:

As Presidents Trump and Putin have publicly announced that a summit between the two leaders is finally in preparation, Russia’s President is carrying out a blitz of international and domestic diplomacy in tandem with Trump’s crucial initiative with North Korea. In fact, in an interview with China Media Group (CMG) yesterday, ahead of his visit to China for the SCO meeting this weekend, Putin described Trump’s decision to hold a summit with Kim Jong-un as a “courageous and mature decision.”

Putin has just completed an historic visit to Austria, a core nation in the EU, demonstrating to the world that the British-instigated campaign to sanction and demonize Russia is collapsing. In his interview with CMG, Putin said: “I believe that common sense will prevail and all the illegal restrictions, which are harmful for the development of the global economy, will be removed with time, while we will be able to improve our relations with all the partners, including the United States and other countries that impose sanctions dancing to the U.S. tune.” He added that, “sooner or later it will become evident” that the sanctions and the provocative military deployments on Russia’s borders “are harmful to everyone, including those who come up with such initiatives.”

The SCO meeting in Qingdao on June 9-10, which for the first time will include India and Pakistan as full members, will represent nearly half the world’s population. Following Prime Minister Modi’s “informal” meetings with both Xi Jinping and Putin over the past month, India is now cooperating fully with the spirit of the New Silk Road, although not officially joining the Belt and Road Initiative itself, due to sovereignty issues in Kashmir, through which the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor passes. But even here, Pakistan and India joined the SCO together, and the Belt and Road is the common economic thread for all the SCO countries.

Putin is also planning a summit with Kim Jong-un. Both Russia and China are fully backing the Trump-Kim Summit next Tuesday in Singapore, with the expectation that integration of North Korea into the Belt and Road will complete the original conception of the New Silk Road formulated by Lyndon and Helga LaRouche in the 1990s — a railroad development corridor from Pusan to Rotterdam. That concept has now been expanded to become a World Land-Bridge, as the Silk Road extends into Africa, Ibero-America, Europe, and, potentially, the United States.

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