Asian Assertion

With Asian economic powerhouses such as China and India aggressively hunting new sources of energy to fuel their expanding economies, new opportunities beckon for the oil- and gas-rich states of the Middle East.Iran and Syria, under stiff international pressure and US sanctions, are strengthening their ties to the Far East and South Asia – eyeing up new markets for their oil and gas and hoping to win powerful new political allies in the process.Saudi Arabia and other key Gulf states are also looking to lessen their reliance on the West by entering the booming markets of the East, a swing that could have geo-strategic implications for Western influence in the Middle East.“I think we are in a very fluid transitional period not just in terms of energy factors but geo-political factors,” says John Calabrese, an energy specialist with Washington’s Middle East Institute. “I think every country is recalibrating its relations