PRESS RELEASE
Fifth Eurasian Forum Opened in Verona, Italy
Oct. 20, 2016 (EIRNS)—The fifth Eurasian Forum opened today in Verona, Italy. This is the main forum for Italian-Eurasian relations, founded by Moscow-based banker Antonio Fallico and associated with the St. Petersburg Forum. More than 60 high-level speakers from Italy, Russia and Eurasia (including China) will give presentations.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi are expected to appear at the Forum tomorrow. In his opening speech, Chairman Fallico exposed the efforts by some forces to set back the clock of history by re-creating the Cold War, and called for building an "economic and geopolitical space from Lisbon to Shanghai." He stressed that participants at the Forum are there to promote a new dialogue and a new approach, shifting from the "made in" to the "made with."
In the first panel, dedicated to "The Changing Geopolitical Map of Eurasia," Chinese author Song Hongbing (Currency Wars) was asked whether conflicts, such as the ones in Southwest Asia or even the one in Ukraine, are created in order to prevent China from building the New Silk Road.
Song said that China has traditionally kept out of conflicts outside of China, and this not just with the current government but along generations in history. However, the war in Syria has forced them to change their mind. China cannot stay away from conflicts any longer, and must state what their interests are.
So, our interest, he said, is that we do not want the region to disintegrate. Our interest is that Syria and Iraq not split into six or seven states. If we want to build the New Silk Road, across Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey, we want those countries to keep peace."
In the same panel, Russian expert Edward Lozansky addressed "The Elephant In the Room," being the United States. We are in Italy, here is the Vatican, and sometimes miracles occur, he said. But if we have no miracles, Hillary Clinton will be the next President of the U.S.A., and she has already announced a policy that leads to war with Russia. Lozansky complained that there is no courageous leader in Europe now.
Lozansky then advised the Eurasian Economic Union to open an office in the United States, as a move that could help improve relations.
In the afternoon, EIR envoy Flavio Tabanelli intervened in the question-and-answer period in a panel on "Economy, Finance and Global Crisis." He addressed his question to Massimo Mucchetti, chairman of the Italian Senate Finance Committee. Since you have in the past endorsed a Glass-Steagall solution, Tabanelli asked, what do you think about a solution for the "ticking bomb" represented by Deutsche Bank, i.e., a government bailout conditioned on a return to a pro-industrial policy as under Herrhausen?
Mucchetti gave a long answer, recalling that DB has long ceased to be a commercial bank and instead is a full investment bank, "based on Wall Street and not in Germany." "Now the rot has come out." He recalled how in spring 2011, he was the one who revealed that DB had sold Italian sovereign bonds en masse "in an act of overt hostility" against the Italian government, and wished that the DB crisis would induce the EU to change bank resolution rules.
Russian representatives approached by EIR are worried about the threat of war and of European lack of action. An independent journalist said she hoped that in 2017 elections Merkel would be voted out.
