What is a ‘just and durable’ peace?

Reports say Secretary of State Anthony Blinken admonished Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the recent G20 meeting to stop this war of aggression and engage in meaningful diplomacy that can produce a “just and durable” peace. Of course no one from the US or NATO has outlined what is a ‘justand durable” peace.

Ukrainian President Zelenskii demands is a total Russian withdrawal from all Ukrainian land, including Crimea. Anything less will be unconscionable to Zellensky considering the thousands of his countrymen killed in combat or tortured and executed by the Russian soldiers, apart from the millions including innocent children displaced and made homelessby this war, which was triggered by the creeping expansionof NATO by the Western nations.

President Biden has said he will not stop until Putin’s Russia is defeated. The Russians may run out of conventional weapons at some stage, but they still have the world’s largest arsenal of nuclear weapons. It is not unrealistic to expect they will use some kind of a tactical nuclear bomb at some stage rather than capitulate and end up in war crimes trials.

The US and NATO countries continue to feed increasingly powerful military hardware to the Ukrainians in a steady escalation of this war. It is easy to do that when the people who suffer or get killed are Ukrainians. Life in the western nations goes on normally except for those gruesome and heart breaking pictures on the TV screens for just a fewminutes every evening.

Perhaps President Biden or Secretary Blinken will spell out with clarity on what the Secretary means by “meaningful diplomacy” that will be acceptable to Putin and Zellensky instead of this steady barrage of sabre rattling at all those who will not fall in line with our policy of indefinite support to Ukraine. One wonders if there is anyone in the western nations who even knows how to begin to negotiate for peace.

Meanwhile, history reminds us that the last time the US engaged in meaningful diplomacy resulting in a durable peace was during the Cuban missile crisis in the days of the Kennedy administration.

SAM KUMAR Moon