The crucial role of a BRICS Bank offer of membership to Greece, contributing to a toughening of the Greek governments commitment to its population against the bankrupt EU "creditors," has been met with a counterattack by London and NATO — in neighboring Macedonia. This is an explicit attempt to repeat the "Maidan" uprising and coup in Macedonia, which dragged Ukraine into the bankrupt arms of the EU and NATO a year ago.

A week ago Greece was defaulting on the IMF, which "blinked" and essentially proposed a trick by which it would pay itself the $750 million payment "due" from Greece. Greeces determination to restore employment, wages, and pensions — and not to pay, or contract any further debts which compromise this — was thus sufficiently shown. Greece is very close to giving Chinas COSCO the contract to develop the Port of Piraeus and the surrounding rail system.

The City of Londons first counterattack is to collapse the Greek banking system, using the European Central Bank to force a formal split from the euro, where it cannot force more austerity. Greek 2- and 3-year bond interest rates are spiking upward today as a result — but, so are those of other so-called "peripheral" EU economies, showing contagion which was not supposed to occur.

The second weapon, against the BRICS-allied nations as a whole, is being deployed in Macedonia. At an anti-government rally of 10-20,000 in the capital, Skopje, opposition leader Zoran Zaev proclaimed yesterday that if Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski did not resign, "there will be war here like in Ukraine." EU diplomats flagrantly marched at the head of the demonstration — the mark of the Maidan. Zaev, whose party has received George Soros funds for years, told the Soros-owned NOVA-TV that the opposition had brought "2,000 young people who know karate and kick-box."

Macedonia is on Chinas Maritime Silk Road, on the route of the gas pipeline agreed by Russia and Turkey into Europe, and is opposed to the sanctions against Russia. And, its economy is growing at a near 5% annual rate, according to the IMF.

European Union Foreign and Defense Ministers approved an unprecedented deployment of naval force against Libya, on the unconscionable pretext of stopping desperate people fleeing war, starvation and mass death from entering Europe en masse across Mediterranean.

The decision was approved today when the ministers met in Brussels. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters that NATO stands "ready to help if there is a request," before the meeting began. EU Foreign Policy head Federica Mogherini said afterwards that the EU is going to rush to put this plan through by June, because the summer months are "high season" for people trying to enter.

This new war is couched as a war against human traffickers, but it includes no measures to protect the migrants in whose name they are hypocritically acting, and leaves untouched the policies of economic genocide and permanent warfare which are driving people into the hands of the murderous human traffickers in the first place.

The first phase is to collect intelligence on the smuggling routes from Libya to southern Italy and Malta; the second, for EU ships to start chasing and boarding smugglers boats; and third, to take military action to sink the boats in Libyan territorial waters, perhaps then blame the Libyans for allowing the refugees to drown in its territorial waters. The ministers, so far, say they will seek a UN resolution such an action, before taking it.

Using the familiar, stock phrase for such illegal wars, the EU ministers promise that there will be no EU boots on the ground in Libya. That might, after all, disturb the Islamic State militants which the last NATO/U.S./EU war against Libya brought to power, whose logistical suppliers today are the same as those smuggling people.

There could not be a more extreme contrast than that between the proposals of the two leading statesmen who are visiting South Korea today.

As Indian President Narendra Modi offers development cooperation and a strategic alliance for peace in Asia, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Seoul ranting about North Korea, threatening new sanctions and to take Pyongyang to the International Criminal Court (ICC), while lying that there is "not an inch, not a centimeter, not a microscope (sic)" of difference between the United States and South Korea in the approach to the North.

As documented in depth in EIR, Seoul, despite serious concerns over the erratic regime in the North, is deeply involved in ongoing development projects involving South Korea, North Korea, and Russia. President Park Geun-hye is intent on building rail and pipeline connections through North Korea to Russia and China within this year, as part of a "peace through development" approach.

Kerrys threats are clearly aimed at the South as well as the North. He raved: "The world is hearing increasingly more and more stories of grotesque, grisly, horrendous, public displays of executions," referring to press reports last week that the South Korea intelligence agency had reported that one of North Koreas top military officials had been executed with anti-aircraft weapons in public. Even the Souths spy agency has now retracted its report of the execution, but that did not restrain Kerrys hysteria.

The purpose was made clear when Kerry met with U.S. military forces in Seoul, saying that the threat from the North means "we need to deploy ships, forces, and we are talking about THAAD." This is Kerrys first reference to the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missiles, South Korea recognizes THAAD is useless against North Korea, 30 miles away, and is only intended as part of the encirclement of China and Russia — which South Korea refuses to be part of.

Chinas Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei responded to Kerrys belligerence: "Under the current complex and sensitive situation on the Korean Peninsula, we hope that the relevant parties can do more to ease the situation and do things conducive to the resumption of the six-party talks."

Park Geun-hye is planning to visit Washington in June.