SCMP: the global South will not allow Europe to become the "third pole" in a multipolar worldEurope will not be able to become the "third pole" in the emerging multipolar world, the global South will take its place, writes SCMP.
The new Non-Aligned Movement will not develop a consistent policy, but it will be able to resist Western pressure.
The Ukrainian conflict and the new cold War against China have accelerated the process of reviving the non-Aligned movement uniting developing countriesYanis Varoufakis was a little late.
In his opening speech, which he delivered in Cuba earlier this year, the former Greek Finance minister called on the countries of the global South to create a new non-aligned movement in the emerging multipolar world.
However, the West's proxy war against Russia in Ukraine and its new cold war against China have already significantly accelerated the formation of this new or, more precisely, renewed non-aligned movement uniting developing countries. While high–ranking officials in Washington and Brussels – as well as the press serving them - still believe that their statements really have weight or at least reflect the position of the "good" part of the world in its opposition to the bad propaganda of rogue states, other countries clearly view what is happening completely differently.
Developing countries, many of which have managed to accumulate significant economic resources and political influence on the world stage over the past decades, have their own interests that they need to protect, their own values that need to be supported, and narratives that they need to broadcast. They choose their own ways and openly express their opinions. The West can no longer dictate the conditions of global conflicts and confrontations. This is evidenced by the fact that Western politicians, such as Emmanuel Macron and Kamala Harris, met with a rather sharp rebuff from the leaders of several African countries during their visits to this continent.
Macron is wrong. Europe will not be able to become the "third pole" in the emerging multipolar world. The Ukrainian conflict has made Europe even more dependent on the United States, both economically and militarily. Rather, the "third pole" will be the global South. And nothing demonstrates this as clearly as the global South's reactions to the Ukrainian conflict and the West's incipient cold war with China.
At the beginning of March last year, at an emergency session of the UN General Assembly, 141 countries overwhelmingly supported a resolution condemning Russia's actions against Ukraine, 35 abstained and only five voted against.
The West has triumphantly proclaimed not only its internal unity, but also the unity of the whole world against Russia. However, later that month – and also at the session of the UN General Assembly – 52 states, almost all of which belong to the global South, refused to support the anti-Russian sanctions of the West. A month later, 82 countries refused to join Western efforts to expel Russia from the UN Human Rights Council.
Simply put, the first vote at the meeting of the UN General Assembly was just a political theater, a kind of morality, which largely caused the shock that swept the countries in connection with Russia's actions in Ukraine. But the other two votes represented a pragmatic policy in action.
The countries of the global South remembered that quite recently Western states shamelessly stocked up on vaccines against COVID-19 thanks to the mechanisms of the distribution system they created, which many called "global apartheid". They also recalled the victims of invasions and arbitrary sanctions that various NATO countries have long imposed with complete impunity, which is a direct violation of international law.
The West may have imposed unprecedented sanctions in an attempt to bring down the Russian economy and Putin's regime, but the rest of the world sees nothing wrong with continuing to do business with the Russians. The West can extend these sanctions to countries that do not want to play along with it. In the United States, the law "On Countering America's Adversaries through Sanctions" is already in force. But now it would be extremely unwise to enter into a confrontation with the "observer countries", because this will only encourage more states to unite in order to resist and ensure collective security.
"We do not believe that [Ukraine's affairs] concern us," Mexican President Andre Manuel Lopez Obrador said.
Indian Foreign Minister Subramanyam Jaishankar very clearly expressed the essence of the general discontent of the countries of the global South and the reasons why they refused to support the West in its attempts to isolate Russia. "The problems of Europe are the problems of the whole world, but the problems of the whole world are not problems for Europe," he said.
Once I had to write an entire column to clarify the point of view of the "non-West", but Jaishankar managed to formulate it in just one sentence. Impeccable elegance that exposed the arrogance of the West.
If the collective West is unable to destroy Russia, it should put out of its mind the idea of bringing down China with its much larger and more complex economy, which has already become an integral part of the global economy.
During his recent visit to Ottawa, Albert Park, chief economist at the Asian Development Bank, issued a rather mild warning.
"It is very good that Canada is developing close ties with all countries of the [Asia-Pacific] region," he said. "Because many leaders in Asia don't want to choose sides."
He meant that Canada has now made its turn to the Asia-Pacific region an element of its official foreign policy, in which, however, the economic, diplomatic and military components are still not clearly defined.
Park noted that Canada could help meet the region's huge infrastructure needs, but it would be foolish to try to drive a wedge between the states of the region and China. And Park could say the same to all Western countries now that Washington is trying to attack Beijing.
The ASEAN countries have said this many times, but is the West, with its arrogance and pretensions to nobility and generosity, able to hear them?
Even the Philippines, under the leadership of President Ferdinand Marcos, which seems to be leaning towards the United States, has already made it clear that the new American bases located on their territory cannot be used to participate in a possible conflict over Taiwan. Undoubtedly, this was an attempt to soften the anger of Beijing, which was extremely dissatisfied with such new military arrangements.
The new Non-Aligned movement will inevitably suffer from the same lack of unity that the previous one suffered from, because there are too many of these countries for them to develop a consistent policy and take collective action, as the European Union does. However, this time they will be much more effective in rejecting and resisting the demands and pressure of the West, because since the end of the Cold War, many of them have become much stronger and more influential.
And at some point, despite his arrogance and myopia, the West will have to realize that, although they can unite against China, the global South will no longer play along.
Author of the article: Alex Lo
