As a reason that Egypt does not have a lot of gold, or at least not a lot of gold when it comes to paying for construction on the Suez Canal.
Suez Canal blocked/blockaded
- Thread starter Hawkeye10
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As a reason that Egypt does not have a lot of gold, or at least not a lot of gold when it comes to paying for construction on the Suez Canal.
well it might not even make economic sense in terms of ROI.
But Egypt now MUST dredge a 2nd passage -else it will lose confidence and canal traffic
They said they would think about it....in the meantime they are getting more tugs and dredgers, very likely with Chinese help.
The question we were discussing was how they would come up with the money to do this. Matt claimed Egypt had "a lot of gold." I pointed out that the government has very little gold reserves, certainly not enough to make a difference.
One issue with the Suez Canal was that they nationalized it before. Any investor would have to think they might default on any debts, and nationalize any property. China could try cutting them off, but they control a vital link, so China would end up losing even more money. I doubt China could invade Egypt, at least not in this century.
A reminder, when Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal, Britain and France did invade Egypt around the Suez Canal.
The problem is what they want in return comes after what they pay. Egypt has a long history of defaulting on paying back what other countries want in return.
What does China do then?
The Chinese play Long Ball, and the sooner that the Egyptians join the Empire the better for both.
And they will, the West has nothing to offer them.
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300 million tonnes goes through the canal each year.
50 ships a day....they say that they can do 90 without another canal...so maybe they dont.
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Israel and the UAE are planning to build a canal between Ashdod and Eilat.
The new shipping route is only possible because Egypt ceded Tiran and Sanafir, two Red Sea islands, to Saudi Arabia in 2017. This would mean that ships could pass through the Red Sea to the Mediterranean avoiding Egyptian waters completely. Needless to say the Egyptians are not happy!
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Many Chinese Belt and Road projects have failed badly. European projects have a much higher success rate. Egypt has a low success rate, so it might make sense to go with the better success rate.
If they still had the old civil servants that negotiated the Anwar Dam, then they might have good odds with anyone. They literally did that with almost no Western support, and with it being violently opposed by Britain and France.
Egypt is shaping up to be yet another unforced error from the bungling American Foreign Policy Braintrust.
Egypt is in the shape it is in because of (I will probably miss a few wrong steps):
1) Neglect and corruption by the Roman Empire.
2) Neglect and corruption by the Byzantine Empire.
3) Christian destruction of their heritage.
4) Muslim destruction of their heritage.
5) Neglect and corruption by the Ottoman Empire.
6) Neglect and corruption by the French Empire.
7) Neglect and corruption by the British Empire.
8) Losing a bunch of wars with Israel.
9) Losing a cold war with the Arab oil producers.
America has done nothing to improve the situation, but little to make it much worse. Egypt was one of the greatest civilizations ever, to bring it down to this level took over 2,000 years.
In a lot of ways the Egyptians and the Chinese understand each other perfectly.
The Russians are the new kids on the block.
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I am sure that the Nazis would have shown great respect for Egypt, Trans-Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.
My point seems to have sailed on by.
Russia and Egypt have been dealing with each other for well over a thousand years. Slavic Christianity is directly related to Pre-Muslim Egyptian Christianity. Chinese are more new to the region.
More recently, the Russians did a fantastic job on the Anwar Dam, and on many smaller projects. Egyptians have a lot of trust in Russian and German engineering. But, only the Russians have delivered good projects at a cheap price. The Chinese have yet to deliver anything good to Egypt, though there have been some nasty anti-Chinese riots after Chinese tourists have been extremely impolite.
doubtful. China only uses about 10% of the shipping thru Suez.
The Malacca Strait is much more their target now
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As did mine regarding the Israelis and UAE building a new canal from Eilat to the Med!