Strength at home and realism abroad is best way to maintain peace
STAYING strong against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was at the top of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s agenda at the G20 summit in Indonesia this week. “Our job is to continue to help the Ukrainians defend themselves,” he said, “and put themselves in the strongest possible position for an eventual negotiation.”
Ukraine has put itself in a magnificent strategic position by re-capturing Kherson from the invading Russians, forcing Vladimir Putin’s war machine on to the back foot. A friendly meeting between US President Biden and Chinese leader Xi on Monday has put further pressure on Russia by agreeing their joint opposition to “the use or threat of nuclear weapons in Ukraine”. If Putin thinks he can blackmail the West with the threat of battlefield nukes, China is clearly not on board.
The poor military performance of Russia in Ukraine has not won him any respect among the more authoritarian states he once courted for support.
NOW is not the time either for the West to provoke any further conflicts. Biden’s peaceful overture to Xi is in marked contrast this week to leading Democrat politician Nancy Pelosi’s grandstanding visit to Taiwan earlier this year. That’s not to say the West should not be firm in its support of Taiwan as an independent, democratic state, but to heighten regional tensions at a time of worsening global economic conditions for purely domestic political gain is not welcome either.
Perhaps, being charitable, Pelosi’s visit was an intended hard jab to be countered by Biden’s softer approach, but there is nothing that infuriates China more than to be lectured byWestern powers and that was on full display at the COP27 climate conference in Egypt.
Quite rightly they see their rapid industrial development as key to the material wellbeing of their people and the thought of reining back their use of carbon energy to achieve this strikes their leaders as madness. In this instance, the West could probably learn from them that a helter-skelter approach to net zero is only going to weaken our economies and dent the prosperity needed to fund adaptation to future climate change.
China reducing its coal fired power stations is never going to happen and the West should get realistic about it, strengthening our own energy security by taking a more balanced approach towards sourcing carbon fuels.
A weakened West will be bad news for defending peace and democracy.
Britain and America’s leading role in supplying weapons to Ukraine is only possible if we remain rich, industrious societies. Making ourselves intentionally poorer to appease some utopian campaigners will help no one. Rishi Sunak made this clear by reiterating backing for defence expenditure this week.
Commissioning five new warships for the Royal Navy will boost our anti-submarine capability just as guarding the world’s seaways is ever more important. Securing 4,000 UK jobs well into the 2030s, the £4billion contract with BAE Systems will contribute much needed growth.
Strength at home and realism abroad is by far the best way to maintain global peace.
The West won the Cold War against the Soviet Union in the 1980s because it embraced a growth-driven capitalism that generated great riches for its own societies, funded the most advanced weaponry, and created a consumer society that was the envy of the Communist world. Military failure in Afghanistan triggered a collapse in Soviet confidence that ended in the Berlin Wall being torn down by its own people.
Western success is the most effective way to encourage subjugated citizens in Russia, Iran and China to question their own rulers.
RUSSIAN defeat in the Ukraine may well be another trigger of social unrest in Russia that should discourage similar authoritarian states, such as China, from embarking on any such ill-judged ventures.
Certainly, China appears to want to re-set relations. “We need to find the right direction for the bilateral relationship and elevate the relationship,” Xi told Biden this week.
We must not lose confidence in the Western way of capitalist-driven growth and democracy. It has served us very well over the last century and is worth protecting. Mr Sunak conveyed this at the G20 summit, explaining his investment in new warships by saying: “As we give the Ukrainian people the support they need, we are also harnessing the breadth and depth of UK expertise to protect ourselves and our allies.”
Helping ourselves is the best way to help others.
‘Capitalist-driven growth and democracy have served us well’