Is the “New World Order” coming to an end?
Imagine a meeting of leaders representing about half of the world’s population that did not make the evening news. The last conference of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which took place this week, received very little coverage in the Western press.
Think of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as Asia’s NATO. For the past 23 years, the SCO has brought together world leaders to discussdiscuss economic and political cooperation and assistance. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping were present to represent Russia and China, respectively. Leaders from India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan were also present. Delegates from Iran and Belarus, who have petitioned to join the organisation, were also present.
The SCO is a strong and powerful organisation that will gain even greater clout with the accession of Iran toto the Middle East. I was especially interested in these leaders’ differing opinions on global affairs. We should pay great attention to their behaviour.
As a Westerner, I would have anticipated Ukraine to be the first subject of conversation whenever Vladimir Putin entered the room. General Secretary Xi raised the concern, but Putin told him that he would keep him updated on the progress of the special military operationspecial military operation.
The first problem, according to Xi, was the United States’ provocations on Taiwan. According to Russian media reports,Xi believes the US is poised to violate our previous agreements with Taiwan. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan did not go well and irritated the Chinese. Many people in America have forgotten about it, but it is still very important to Xi.
The meeting began to take shape at this time. WithoutWithout identifying the United States or the European Union, President Putin spoke to the West as a whole. The President stated, and I quote:
The author writes that “attemptsThe author writes that “attempts to build a unipolar world have recently taken on an extremely hideous shape and are totally unacceptable to the great majority of nations on earth.”.”
Of course, these remarks are in response to the sanctions and violations of trade agreements between the West as a whole and Russia. Putin sees recent US and European activities as an attempt to build a unipolar world.
And he wasn’t alone in his view. Sohail Khan, the SCO’s Deputy Secretary General, made an address titled:
“Economic Wars as a Weapon of Sovereign Suppression.” This address was also a reply to the West’s recent sanctions against Russia.
Many people in our country believe that sanctions are theless harsh and less harsh and more compassionate solution to this issue. However, the SCO and Professor Khan saw sanctions as a matter of life and death. We must acknowledge their point of view.
It is also critical that we recognise these countries’ significant economic contributionscontributions. They have essentially neutralised every economic punishment imposed by the Biden Administration.
First, Biden barred them from using SWIFT, the international payments system. With China in the lead, they nearly removed their transactions from SWIFT. andand now employ the CIPS System, which is headquartered in China.
When the United States and much of Europe prohibited the purchase of Russian oil, they traded among themselves, thereby avoiding the old order. And, as we reported last week, Gazprom, Russia’s largest oil and gas exporter, posted record earnings, more than double the previous year.
The Shanghai Cooperation Countries interpret President Biden’s criticism of Russia and its war in Ukraine as an attack on them. They consider the United States to be the more serious threat.
They are, by all accounts, as hostile to the American-centric, “Unipolar” world as Vladimir Putin is. And, while American presidentspresidents since George H.W. Bush have praised the glories of a “New World Order,” achieving it with half the world hostile will be extremely difficult.
