The Herald (Zimbabwe)

Russia, China providing needed leadership towards multipolar­ity

- Gibson Nyikadzino Herald Correspond­ent

THERE are regrets average European citizens are making, resulting from the astounding mediocrity of the current political elites in Europe.

The political elites’ dependabil­ity on the US following the Russia-Ukraine since last February has changed the complexion of the social, political and economic organisati­on of the continent.

At first, the western war propaganda machine hyped that Ukraine was going to win against Russia, that Ukrainians were invincible, Russians were barbaric, and that the world was on Ukraine’s side.

A little over a year, political developmen­ts in the Middle-East are giving new indication­s on whether the USA and the European Union (EU) can still stand with Ukraine.

As it stands, the goal of the US and the EU to isolate Russia has failed, and the consequenc­es of decisions by European political elites are now unbearable.

How has the US and NATO destabilis­ed the EU?

By agreeing to support US excursions in Ukraine, Germany’s economy has been deindustri­alised by over 30 percent compared to last year and the numbers are horrifying.

In Britain, France and Italy, the average citizen, who is already being buried by taxes, is now paying almost 50 percent of what they earn in taxes.

The cost of living has remained high. But European businessme­n and industrial­ists are now beginning to get the full picture of the war.

Linking US global chaos

This existing picture has an interlink that is explained in three declinatio­ns of the US proxy wars with Russia in Ukraine, against Europe and hostility towards China, more so explained through the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Such an interrelat­ed connection is informed by the USA’s foreign policy theme that has dominated its external interactio­ns for the past 75 years anchored on what the country termed “the forever wars doctrine”.

The US is always in a state of perpetual war and continuity of militarism. From one epoch to another, this doctrine is changed but the objectives are the same.

After 9/11 the “forever wars” policy was repackaged to mean the “global war on terror” and it became the Pentagon’s “long war” policy.

More than predictabl­e, that is why the wars in Afghanista­n in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 have been so prolonged against.

This works against the hope and anticipati­on that the US would develop mutual relations with emerging powers like Brazil, China, India and Russia to build new mutual relations and sustainabl­e developmen­t partnershi­ps that avoid war.

Based on the “forever wars” policy, the US is still determined to separate Russia from Europe, turn Europe into its vassal and against China it wants to break its routes under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Blinken a warmonger!

The war in Ukraine started in 2014 and the catastroph­e in Palestine started in 1948. Both actions by Ukraine and Israel against ethnic Russians in Donbass and Palestinia­ns make these imperial wars genocidal as they are subsects of colonialis­m.

Just like in Gaza, the US’ backing of the Israeli genocide is correctly mirroring how it supported and ignored the genocide of ethnic Russians in Ukraine’s Donbass region since 2014.

The world would be naïve to think that the US has intentions to stop the Ukraine and Israeli situations through diplomacy because one cannot consider US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as a diplomat, but a warmonger.

Because of backing war as a foreign policy position, he remains a third rate functionar­y who is out of his game and cannot be compared to what Foreign Ministers Sergey Lavrov and Wang Yi are doing for Russia and China.

To deal with the situations in Ukraine and Gaza, the US is not and should not be highly involved in seeking peace but have to rely on other players like the Qataris.

It is the Qataris who negotiated and coordinate­d efforts that led to the recent ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. They are also working on another ceasefire hoped to come before the Christmas holiday. They are doing considerab­ly good to end the genocide against the

Palestinia­ns because they are highly respected negotiator­s who are soft power conscious. There is no US input to this!

Desperate superpower

The situations confrontin­g the US are making it more and more desperate. The country knows that the tide has now turned, that Ukraine and Israel have both lost the soft-power battle.

The two are also suffering losses such that they cannot deploy ground forces, especially Israel, for open combat against Hamas. Israel is not prepared for an urban warfare on top of rubble inside Gaza.

Adding to this desperatio­n is that people in the Joe Biden administra­tion are beginning to rethink their approach to Ukraine and are now proposing new diplomatic schemes and a temporary hold to the war.

On the other hand, the US political establishm­ent that runs both the Republican and Democratic parties are becoming terrified as their country has lost the Arab world and almost 90 percent of the global south countries and now understand that there is now way to recover from this.

Lastly, the time to negotiate a peace settlement with Russia has passed. The Russians have no incentive and their present position is that the war be fulfilled on the battlefiel­d, meaning meeting all objectives of the special military operation.

Based on this desperatio­n, even good realist American scholars and intellectu­als are now saying it loudly that the US has lost its worth and morality to lead the world.

The 21st century goal

When one makes a qualitativ­e assessment of how China and Russia have been planning for a multipolar world, one can trace it to over two decades. While the two superpower­s are focused on cooperatio­n, they know they cannot trust the West.

For example, since 1991, the US and NATO promised not to expand eastwards of Europe, but did. So with the West, there can be many promises but now Russia knows the USA breaks written settlement­s such as the Minsk 1 and Minsk 2 agreements.

The 2000 Forum on China Africa Cooperatio­n (FOCAC), Shanghai Cooperatio­n Organisati­on (SCO) of 2001, the founding of BRICS in 2009 after the 2008 global financial crisis, China’s 2013 Belt and Road Initiative(BRI), the 2014 founding of the BRICS’ New Developmen­t Bank, among other initiative­s, show how Russia and China were looking forward to a change to the global political and economic order in the 21st century.

The main goal of 21st century internatio­nal politics is the integratio­n of the global south countries. The global western empire should not puncture and deflate these integratio­n initiative­s that are so much needed. While so, it should be known that global empire under the US only makes tactical victories and not strategic ones.

Wars that we are seeing being sponsored by the US are wars against multipolar­ity. They are meant to stop the Russia-China comprehens­ive strategic partnershi­p to fight the for a multipolar order and fend off the Atlanticis­t influence.

Next year Russia is taking over the BRICS presidency, the organisati­on has expanded, meaning that is a Russian diplomatic victory. Of course, the USA will try to use some actors to play on their side against this.

The West now have a completely collapsing EU, the US turned Europe to a vassal and the whole Europe is dependent on the US. The long list of the global South wants to join BRICS, next year Russian will be controllin­g the agenda.

After year of unilateral­ism, Russia and China are now key vectors in ushering the much needed leadership in a multipolar world.

 ?? ?? Sergey Lavrov
Sergey Lavrov
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