Mistral blowback. India forgets France's $22 billion Rafale fighter jet deal and pivots to Russian 5th generation fighter jet, $25 billion deal - Red Pill Times

With each passing day, France’s blockbuster $22 billion Rafale fighter jet deal with India dies another death.

Western main stream media says very little about the blowback from Hollande’s disastrous Mistral pullback with Russia.

Their silence may have to do with the fact that Hollande’s decision to break off, the paid in full, Mistral ship deal with Russia has not only lead to India’s hesitation to do business with France’s Military Industrial Complex, but the country that will now be handling India’s massive fighter jet order is non other than Russia. Karma!

How big of a loss is this for Hollande, and how big of a win is this for Putin…let’s put it into perspective.

By not delivering the Mistral ships, France will have to return the $1.45 billion (already paid for) back to Russia. 

France’s reputation as a trusted military arms provider has been irreparably damaged. 

Hollande cowered to pressure from Washington and failed to honor a contractual business agreement. 

India, seeing that France cannot be trusted to conduct business in good faith and with sovereignty, is now pulling back from a massive $22 billion Rafale fighter jet deal with France. 

The money allocated to the French industrial complex will now go to Russia’s military industrial complex. 

Russia may have lost two Mistral Helicopter ships, but it will get it’s $1.45 billion back from France, plus another cool $25 billion deal with India.

Who is isolated again?

Complete story at - Mistral blowback. India forgets France's $22 billion Rafale fighter jet deal and pivots to Russian 5th generation fighter jet, $25 billion deal - Red Pill Times

A couple more nails in the petrodollar's coffin, courtesy of Turkey, India and Russia - Red Pill Times

This nail courtesy of Turkey and Russia, (via Sputnik news agency):

Russia and Turkey are set to work on increasing payments between the countries in their national currencies, the Russian-Turkish Intergovernmental Commission said Wednesday.

“The working group on financial and banking cooperation, taking into account information about detected barriers, is to continue its work to eliminate them and increase the volume of payments in the national currencies of Turkey and Russia,” the commission said.

Both sides noted the absence of legal and infrastructural constraints for conducting payments in their national currencies and agreed to work alongside representatives of the business communities to identify possible obstacles.

This nail courtesy of India and Russia, (via Sputnik news agency):

Transition to national currencies, the rupee and ruble, in trade between India and Russia will significantly increase bilateral trade, P.S. Ragahvan, the Indian Ambassador to Moscow told Rossiya Segodnya news agency on Tuesday.

“I would like to mention actually three specific ways in which we are looking to see a significant increase in trade exchanges between our two countries. The first is as mentioned, trade in national currencies,” Ragahvan stated. “It is obviously advantageous, because trade between Russia and India is now through the currency of a third country which means that business people have to hedge against two different currencies – between the rupee and the dollar and then the dollar to the ruble and vice versa,” the ambassador stated in an interview ahead of the Indian Trade and Industry exhibition in Moscow.

Besides the transition to national currencies, the ambassador proposed another two elements that could “have a huge impact on trade between the two countries.” The second and the third elements are discussions between customs authorities and the active use of the North South Corridor, going “from ports in India to ports in Iran, up by the overland route and then into Russia, either across the Caspian Sea or through Azerbaijan.” According to the ambassador, this could reduce “the total length traversed by goods between India and Russia by half.”

While Obama tries to hammer Russia into submission via Ukraine and sanctions with the support of the “international community”, Putin is hammering away at the petrodollar with an all to enthusiastic and willing group of participats known to many of us as the “rest of the world.”

Complete story at - A couple more nails in the petrodollar's coffin, courtesy of Turkey, India and Russia - Red Pill Times

Indian authorities close down Coca-Cola factory | New Eastern Outlook

The closing down of the recently built factory belonging to Coca-Cola in India, located close to Varanasi in the state Uttar Pradesh, is the result of a prolonged and persistent struggle by the local residents, which has been going on for the past 11 years. The grounds for the protests were the concerns of the locals regarding the depletion and the pollution of the ground waters, due to the activities of the company, as well as the unlawful seizure of the territories belonging to local communities. As a result, the Regulatory Authorities of India refused to issue Coca-Cola a permit for the activities of the new enterprise (one of the 58 factories, located on the territory of the country) and refused to present their decision for consideration to the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which sanctioned the closure of the enterprise in the first place. India is one of the few developing countries, where the active role in supporting ecological safety belongs to the court system.

The Court ruled that the five-fold increase in groundwater withdrawals, requested by the company will aggravate the water supply situation even further, which has significantly deteriorated since the arrival of Coca-Cola in India in 1999.

Back in 2009, the local authorities of Mehdiganj (the area of Varanasi being part of it) were forced to impose restrictions for peasants to use the ground waters, which could not but entail their negative response, aimed at the largest American corporation. The situation was aggravated by the fact that 70% of the water withdrawal accounts for the period from March till June, when the level of the groundwater occurrence reaches its minimum, which restricts the possibility of it being used by the locals, living at the expense of agriculture.

One Coca-Cola enterprise only uses one million liters per day. However, the production of the final product (600 bottles per minute) requires a quarter of the withdrawn ground water volume. A large part of it becomes waste which is discharged, without a full cycle of purification, into the environment and reaching the fields and water reservoirs, causing their contamination. State ecological authorities of India took samples of the waste produced by nine Coca-Cola factories and found a very high content of lead, cadmium and chromium, exceeding the safe standards for the health of the population by 30 times, which can result in the immune system malfunctions and presents a danger for cancer occurrence. One cannot say the same about the Coca-Cola drinks sold in the USA. There, according to conclusions made by the Indian non-government organisation ‘Centre for Science and Environment’, no poisonous substances were found in the company’s products. The Indian parliament has even prohibited the sale of Coca-Cola drinks in the building of the legislation authority, due to the high content of pesticides and chemicals, including DDT.

Complete story at - Indian authorities close down Coca-Cola factory | New Eastern Outlook

Global strategic move: India increases defence trainings in Asia, Africa and Latin America - Economic Times

NEW DELHI: India is subtly increasing defence training programmes in friendly countries in southeast Asia Africa and Latin America, with a global strategic objective.

Besides training military officers and personnel of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Asean, African and Latin American nations in domestic training facilities, Indian trainers are also visiting countries like Laos and Vietnam and Namibia and Ethiopia to impart military training, official sources told ET.

These are friendly countries with which India has extensive diplomatic contacts, sources pointed out. The training is not just about combat readiness but also involves basic modules like rock climbing and assisting in building infrastructure in these countries.

While in Southeast Asia, India is eyeing to play a larger strategic role, military cooperation with the African countries is in the context of maritime security cooperation and anti-piracy operations. "The defence cooperation with Africa has also to be viewed in the context of South-South cooperation," explained an official who did not wish to be named.

Complete story at - Global strategic move: India increases defence trainings in Asia, Africa and Latin America - Economic Times

Modi leads India to the Silk Road - Rediff.com India News

With Beijing having had a profound rethink on India's admission as a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the tectonic plates of the geopolitics of a massive swathe of the planet stretching from the Asia-Pacific to West Asia are dramatically shifting.

That grating noise in the Central Asian steppes will be heard far and wide -- as far as North America, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.

On the face of it, China has so far been reluctant about India's admission as a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

According to latest reports, Beijing has had a profound rethink.

At the SCO foreign ministers meeting last Thursday in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, a decision has been taken that the grouping will formally invite India, Pakistan, Iran and Mongolia as members at its next summit in September.

To be sure, Russia would be immensely pleased. A Moscow pundit promptly estimated that India's admission into the SCO will pave the way for the grouping to hold itself out as a 'centre of power in world politics.'

Make no mistake, the tectonic plates of the geopolitics of a massive swathe of the planet stretching from the Asia-Pacific to West Asia are dramatically shifting and that grating noise in the Central Asian steppes will be heard far and wide -- as far as North America.

The big question remains: What made China shift its stance?

We know that at the 90-minute meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Fortaleza, Brazil, on the sidelines of the recent BRICS summit, the subject of India's role in the SCO did come up.

Several reasons could be attributed to the 'new thinking' in Beijing. First and foremost, China may sense that under Modi's leadership, India is all set to pursue a genuinely independent foreign policy.

The idea of an 'independent foreign policy' has been a cliche in Indian discourses and has been bandied about cavalierly by many governments in India.

Complete story at - Modi leads India to the Silk Road - Rediff.com India News