HIGHLIGHT EIR COVERAGE
Russia's New Transport Union
To Change Map of Eurasia
The creation of a Eurasian Transport Union (EATU), announced May 15 by Russian Minister of Transport Sergei Frank, provides an institutional venue for deliberations among the nations of Eurasia, and any others, interested in building great infrastructure projects as a road out of economic depression. The EATU will, said its Vice President Yuri Shcherbanin, be a "standing secretariat" of the International Eurasian Conferences on Transport, of which the first two were held in St. Petersburg in 1998 and 2000, and the third is scheduled there for 2003.
As EIR editorialized last week, Russia's commitment to developing transport corridors--the railway component of what can become the most intensive agro-industrial development ever seen on the planet--coincides with year 2004 U.S. Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.'s proposals for a U.S. strategic recovery program. The effort to build rail-centered corridors of high-technology transport, power and communications infrastructure opens the door for global economic reforms. These, LaRouche says, "match exactly the strategic priorities I have placed upon emergency re-regulation of energy production and distribution, and revival of the Hill-Burton tradition in health-care inside the U.S.A. itself."
The North-South Corridor
Frank said that the EATU is open for countries, transport companies, other firms and organizations to join. The new organization will promote the rapid build-up of international Eurasian railroad-centered transport corridors across the territory of Russia. This activity includes upgrading existing infrastructure, such as the rail and port facilities of the Trans-Siberian Railroad, and developing a new north-south corridor, from Europe through Iran and Russia to India.
EIR's June 1 coverage includes a 10-year timeline, with full transport corridor maps of Eurasia, of the progress of "Landbridge" and development-corridor conceptions in Russian government thinking, and the interventions by LaRouche and associates in Russia with these proposals.
