This intellectual work and the constant focus on it are particularly important today when the world is undergoing tectonic shifts without exaggeration. They are happening very quickly. We must monitor them and try to understand where they are headed. Their common vector points to the need to consolidate multilateral relations and a polycentric international order. Its foundations are taking shape today. No doubt, this will be a long period historically, but it is already in full swing. New centres of economic growth, financial power and political influence are emerging. The GDP of the Asian-Pacific Region (APR) by purchasing power parity has more than doubled in the past 20 years – from 15.9 percent to 37.7 percent of the global total. At the same time, it is clear that the Western liberal development model that, among other things, implied ceding part of national sovereignty (it is in this vein that our Western colleagues planned what they called “globalisation”) is losing its appeal and has long ceased to be a model to follow. Moreover, even many people in the West are skeptical about it – you can see many examples of this.
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Unfortunately, our Western partners led by the United States are not willing to agree on common approaches to resolving problems. Washington and its allies are trying to impose their own approaches. Their behavior is clearly based on a desire to preserve their centuries-old domination in international affairs despite the objective trends toward a polycentric international order. This runs contrary to the fact that purely economically and financially, the United States and its closest allies can no longer single-handedly resolve all issues in the global economy and world affairs. Moreover, various methods of blackmail, coercive, economic, and informational pressure are used in order to artificially retain their dominance and to regain their undisputed positions. They are not above overt, blatant interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states, such as Venezuela. Without hesitating, they publicly threaten Cuba and Nicaragua with the same scenarios. These are the most recent and odious examples.
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It is clear that by economic indicators the US is still the leading power, but its relative role is declining. The economies of China, India and a number of other countries and regions are booming. As we have seen over the past few years, the US is no longer capable of competing in the economy in good faith. Methods of unfair competition today determine the actions of Washington in international economic relations. The principles of the WTO are being eroded. It is because of Washington’s position that the existing dispute resolution body in the WTO cannot start working, and the US resorts to procedural tricks to keep it in such a “suspended”, “frozen” state for as long as possible. Moreover, unilateral sanctions and the extraterritorial application of its own laws, which has acquired a global character, as well as trade wars, which is all we hear about now – all of this is directed not only against countries that pursue an independent policy, but also against the closest allies of the United States. The situation around Nord Stream 2 and the threats against Turkey, a NATO member, because Ankara decided to strengthen its defences by acquiring Russian weapons, are examples of this.
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Instead of the term international law, they have switched to another term – the rules-based order. Our Western partners insist on having a rules-based order. However, they do not specify what these rules are because every time the rules are invented to fit the situation. When we asked them about the reason for this change, they failed to provide an intelligible answer. But we see how this works in practice. Under the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Technical Secretariat was created to determine if any banned chemical agent was used or not. Amendments to the convention were voted through – an unlawful move as votes in favour of the amendments accounted for less than a half of the overall number of the signatories to the Convention – in such a way that the Technical Secretariat was authorised, as a matter of fact, to determine who is guilty of the use of a chemical agent, which is otherwise the exclusive right of the UN Security Council. It is an altogether illegal action because, as any legal expert or even a schoolchild knows, amendments to conventions are, by definition, subject to consensus. If you want to introduce an idea, please propose an amendment. The amendment will be debated and if it is approved during talks, a ratification process will be launched. This is the only way to change conventions. However, instead of taking an approach based on international law, the West resorted to the rules it invented to push its position through.
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Thus, a concept for countering violent extremism was pushed through the UN Secretariat under the previous Secretary-General. It says that extremism is generated in the countries where authoritarian regimes clamp down on democracy and human rights, so the international community should work with the civil society of these countries bypassing their respective governments. Clearly, this is another manifestation of a policy aimed at interfering with the domestic affairs of other countries.
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[…] our unconditional priority is to realise Russian President Vladimir Putin’s initiative to create the Greater Eurasian Partnership involving member states of the EAEU, SCO and ASEAN. We keep the door open to all other countries on the vast Eurasian continent. This also applies to the EU, if and when it is ready to join in a process based on equal rights and mutual benefit.
Și, tot SL.