A broad coalition of countries that oppose US unilateral sanctions should appear in the world. Only in this case, the United States will lay down these weapons to preserve world domination. This, among other things, was said by Sergey Lavrov in a program interview on the eve of the talks in China. What are Moscow and Beijing ready to offer the world to abandon American dependence?
On Monday, the working visit of the head of Russian diplomacy Sergey Lavrov to China began. On Tuesday, the Foreign minister is scheduled to meet with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. The ministers are expected to discuss strategic cooperation between the two countries. From China, Lavrov will travel to South Korea for talks.
Lavrov's visit to China is not directed against other states, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said. At the same time, she noted that the visit of the head of the Russian foreign policy takes place immediately after the difficult negotiations between the representatives of Beijing and Washington in Alaska. Wang Yi's talks with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, we recall, were marked by a diplomatic scandal caused by the boorish and uncompromising behavior of the American side.
On the eve of the meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister, Lavrov gave a detailed interview to the Chinese press. Among other things, he stressed that Moscow supports the formation of the broadest possible coalition of countries that oppose unilateral sanctions. Any initiatives aimed at removing such an illegitimate tool as unilateral sanctions from international life deserve every support, Lavrov said.
The Russian minister mentioned several ways to get rid of dependence on Western economic hegemony. So, he called for thinking about moving away from the use of international payment systems controlled by the West. "We need to reduce the sanctions risks by strengthening our technological independence, by switching to settlements in national currencies and in world currencies that are alternative to the dollar," Lavrov said.
The Foreign Minister explained the need to strengthen its independence by the US attempts to limit the opportunities for technological development of both Russia and China. "Life forces us to build our line in economic and social development in such a way that we do not depend on the "quirks" that our Western partners demonstrate," Lavrov said.
Some Western states, led by the United States, seek to maintain their dominance in the global economy and international politics at all costs, the Russian Foreign Minister said.
On the other hand, "Russia proceeds from the fact that our trusting, mutually respectful dialogue with China should serve as an example for other countries, including those trying to build relations with Russia and China on slightly different, not quite equal principles," the head of domestic diplomacy noted.
The 2002 Treaty on Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation with the People's Republic of China, which is planned to be extended for another five years, has successfully passed the test of time – and thanks to the document, relations between Moscow and Beijing have reached an unprecedented level, Lavrov stressed.
Earlier, the Russian Foreign Minister criticized the sanctions "instincts" of the West and unwise attempts to punish Russia and China with sanctions, and also accused Western countries led by the United States of striving to maintain dominance in the global economy and international politics at any cost.
It is important that Lavrov spoke not only about strengthening cooperation between Moscow and Beijing, but also about creating an international coalition that would oppose unilateral sanctions, said the political scientist, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) Andrey Kortunov. It should be noted that the Russian Foreign Minister recalled in a dialogue with Chinese journalists that the initiative to create such a coalition comes from Venezuela.
"Politically, such an alliance can sound if it is possible to pour a significant number of states into it," Kortunov stressed. – Then such an alliance can influence the resolutions of the UN General Assembly. These will be states that disagree with the unilateral US sanctions –
a significant part of the countries of the global South, India, Brazil, South Korea, Israel, Turkey and in some areas the EU countries."
"The transition to such anti – sanctions interaction is a vital issue for us," said Vasily Kashin, an expert at the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies. In his opinion, there will be no significant reaction from the West to such interaction. "There is no united West on this issue," Kashin explained. – There is the United States and its closest allies-Canada and Australia. But the EU's position is different, as are the positions of Japan and South Korea. Everyone plays their own game. The fact is that China is the most important trading partner for all of them, " Kashin explained.
"Of course, the United States will seek to increase the sanctions pressure on Russia and China, but they will not be able to do anything else – they have collapsed communication channels with us and with the Chinese," the expert predicts.
Over the past few years, China has become convinced that the US policy on it has changed dramatically and it will not improve – at least in the near future, said Alexey Maslov, acting director of the Institute of the Far East of the Russian Academy of Sciences. According to him, Beijing was convinced that the attack that the United States launched under Donald Trump is not a special case, but a long – term strategy. "It is no accident that today a number of Chinese newspapers are beginning to repeat the same phrase:" No country alone can resist the union of Russia and China. China needs Russia as a strong partner for political development, " Maslov told the VZGLYAD newspaper.
As for the idea of an anti-sanctions coalition proposed by Lavrov, it can work at least in the short term, as a tactical maneuver, the expert believes. "A coalition based on the principle of" uniting against" lives exactly as long as there is a threat, " Maslov said. Such a merger will be sustainable if Moscow and Beijing propose a new global project. "It is now advantageous for Russia and China to offer their understanding of how the world should be arranged in the new conditions. It is not only about changes after the pandemic, but also about new forms of military-political partnership. And most importantly-about new mutually beneficial cross-border relations, tariff-free zones, and so on, " the analyst explained.
It is important that Lavrov mentioned specific tools for establishing such ties, experts said. Until a certain time, the work on switching to alternative payment mechanisms, to national currencies and moving away from the American financial structure was slow, since Russia was under sanctions, and China was not, Kashin noted. "Chinese big business has been more globalized than Russian, and is focused on international expansion," the source added. But both countries found themselves in a new situation, as since May 2020, a sharp escalation of US sanctions pressure on China began.
"Before that, we were talking about individual high-tech companies and enterprises of the military-industrial complex. And now hundreds of Chinese companies are under US sanctions. This creates new conditions for cooperation, " Kashin believes.
According to the expert, now Russia's volume of payments in national currencies is about 20% of the trade turnover. Bilateral trade is dominated by the euro. "Perhaps now, with the help of political will and business interests, we will be able to make the breakthrough that has been much discussed – to switch to trading in national currencies. But mostly it will be the yuan, because the ruble is tied to oil and is very volatile, " Kashin said.
The rejection of the dollar should mean the creation of a more stable, more profitable payment system for us, Maslov stressed. "This is possible," the expert believes. – I would like to draw your attention to the fact that a number of Russian banks, including Gazprombank and VEB, as well as some large companies are quite active in the field of interaction on settlements in national currencies. But payments in yuan have not become popular among small and medium-sized businesses. This is a matter for consideration."
The concerns of Russian businessmen are understandable. "The rejection of the dollar, as it is now perceived primitively, is a very harmless story, since today the yuan occupies less than 3-4% in the volume of cross-border payments. That is, the yuan is not a serious payment system in world trade. As a result, by simply switching to the yuan, we limit our trading volumes, " Maslov said.
According to the interlocutor, a possible promising option could be not the "Sinification" of foreign exchange transactions, but a gradual transition to sovereign cyber currencies that work on the principle of blockchain. "Now China is very actively engaged in this, while Russia is less active. And theoretically, we can coordinate our efforts in the field of national currencies and national blockchain – and thus abandon the dollar, " Maslov believes.
Natalia Makarova, Vladislav Vasilenko
