amoy
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Asia Times Online :: A dragon dance in the Negev
By M K Bhadrakumar
excerpts
By M K Bhadrakumar
excerpts
Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. His assignments included the Soviet Union, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Turkey.China's Middle East diplomacy is adroitly advancing three parallel tracks engaging Iran, GCC states and Israel. This may seem improbable against the backdrop of the rise of Iran and the concomitant hostility it arouses in Israel and the GCC states. But Beijing sees no contradiction here, and is striving to make the three tracks even complement each other. Conceivably, one day they well might.
The great beauty is that all three Middle Eastern camps - Iran, the GCC and Israel - equally want the best of relationships with China and are manifestly vying with each other for the dragon's prime time. This is going to pose an unsolvable riddle for other outside powers aspiring for influence in the region, be it the West or Turkey and Russia.
Netanyahu said, "I appreciate China's need to ensure a regular supply of sources of energy in order to continue its impressive growth. I believe it is possible to replace Iranian oil." He still hopes to wean China away from Iranian oil, although Beijing has no intentions to erode its economic relationship with Iran. China-Iran trade is booming at US$45 billion - as compared to $8 billion China-Israel trade.
'Junction between continents'
Nonetheless, Israel is making an offer out of the massive oil and gas reserves in the Levant Basin province in the eastern Mediterranean. The area, encompassing approximately 32,000 square miles, covers onshore and offshore territory including the Gaza Strip, Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus. The US Geological Survey estimated in 2010 that the area holds a mean of 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil and a mean of 122 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of recoverable gas.
The earlier estimation was that these reserves would ensure Israel's energy security, but more recent assessment in the light of new findings of reserves is that they are far greater than required to meet Israel's needs.
Huge infrastructure development is on the cards including liquefaction facilities to be set up on Israel's coast and transportation routes leading to viable markets for Israel's energy export. These alluring vistas of cooperation explain Netanyahu's confidence that Israel's bilateral trade with China can be easily doubled in the very near future. (China already figures as Israel's third important trading partner after the US and European Union.)
Israeli Transport Minister Yisrael Katz visited Beijing in September and he has been quoted recently as saying, "The professional capability of the Chinese companies in the construction of railway systems and transportation networks is among the best in the world."
The Israeli Transport Ministry has underscored that Israel would prefer Chinese state-owned companies to undertake the construction of a so-called "Med-Red" railway through the Negev Desert's Zin Valley connecting Israel's Mediterranean and Red Sea coast cities of Haifa and Eilat.
Swiftly following up on Katz's discussions in Beijing, China began working on a joint proposal with Israel for the Eilat link. Chinese and Israeli companies may jointly execute the project and, conceivably, China may invest in the project.
Now, the two biggest Israeli gas finds - Leviathan and Tamar - lie off 130 and 80 kilometers from the port city of Haifa. While Leviathan is estimated to hold reserves of 16 tcf of gas, Tamar's reserves amount to at least 8.4 tcf. (Recently, two more gas fields - Sarah and Mira - were discovered off the port city of Hadera further south of Haifa.)
The proposed rail-cum-road links would facilitate transfer of liquefied natural gas from Israel's Mediterranean coast to the Red Sea coast from where they can be shipped across the Indian Ocean to China. Again, the communication link would enhance the scope for China's exports to central and southern Europe and the Balkans.
The relationship between China and Israel has been complex. It has had its ups and downs. But the Israeli Foreign Ministry is justified in claiming in a statement last week that the two countries are presently "enjoying a flowering of relations in recent years".