SOTT EXCLUSIVE: Obama NOT the guest of honor at APEC while Putin and Xi waste no time in signing another megadeal

China is sending Obama and the empire of chaos a powerful message at the APEC gathering in Beijing. First of all, it is clear that Putin is the guest of honor and not Obama. This was strongly demonstrated in the usual group photo of the leaders, where Putin was to the right of the Chinese president Xi. In contrast Obama was hardly visible and relegated on the outer wing, with female leaders. This photo says it all with the added circles by a blogger:

© AFP/Getty Images

The message is clear. China and Russia stand shoulder to shoulder as big strategic partners and are intent on asserting their vision of a multipolar world which is not dominated by the petrodollar.

APEC did agree on a free trade deal, but it was not Obamas version that won the day, but the Chinese version as the Nation reports:

CHINA has gained support for its version of a regional free-trade arrangement as leaders to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) agreed to create a new free-trade area "as early as possible." The US-sponsored Trans Pacific Partnership, however, failed to set a timeframe. In a drafted joint statement, leaders of 21 economies reaffirmed commitment to the Chinese-backed Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific for further regional economic integration.

In another show of strength and of Russian-Chinese cooperation, just yesterday, Putin signed a memorandum of understanding for another mammoth gas deal for 30 billion cubic meters per year, that when completed in 2018, will make China the biggest importer of Russian gas and thereby overtake Germany.

© AFP

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping shake hands during a signing ceremony at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on November 9, 2014.

Russia is clearly looking east for business and win-win partnerships and is in no way isolated as the US and Europe would wish to see. On the contrary, the US and especially the EU are getting increasingly isolated and all by their own doing.

Aeneas Georg

I'm a train manager and ticket inspector on international train routes in Europe. I've been reading SOTT since 2003 and first joined the editorial team in 2007 after realizing I had to do something about the deteriorating state of our world. I'm particularly interested in 'following the money' to track the machinations of the deceptive ones in high places. I suppose you could say I've taken my chosen profession to a new level, and now with SOTT I'm "inspecting the flows" of people and money in more ways than one.