The initiative by incumbent White House President Joe Biden to bring “democracies” together from December 9 to 10 is causing mixed impressions among internationalists
On the one hand, it is possible and, according to Washington, even necessary to forget that there are 92 countries in the world, besides 110, unnoticed, and recall the US leader’s pre-election promise to hold such an event. Moreover, who cares that there are 193 member states in the UN, of which the US was also the creator at one time. After all, the organisers are clearly more concerned with a demonstration of power, the authority of the American side, which still wants to tell the world about “democracy”.
Fortunately, there are so many states suffering from international political amnesia and ready to start from scratch at their own expense, that one need not bother. Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya – what was there in these countries, when America started talking about problems of democracy and “fixed” the situation by its own efforts, leaving ruins behind? We understood nothing – “That’s different!”
On the other hand, it is equally clear that the White House, by and large, no longer has anything to offer the world. The ideological vacuum and mutual mistrust, much of which the US has contributed to, has caused the world to dig itself in, to surround itself with a fence and “democracy” is the last thing on its mind. “Something has to be done”, they decided in Washington. They could do with something constructive.
Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin’s recent statements on December 7 about threats and aggression from “China in Taiwan” and “Russia in Ukraine” hardly provide constructive grounds for a dialogue. While the emergence in September 2021 of a trilateral defence alliance between the US, UK and Australia – AUCUS – openly directed against Beijing, kills the last doubts – the formula “against whom we are friends” is fully applicable to the “Summit for Democracy”.
Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have been invited from the post-Soviet countries. And here, of course, is an attempt to contrast these states with those who were not invited to the party. First and foremost, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and other EAEU countries. By the way, Yerevan could have refused such an “honour” at least for the sake of political consistency: after all, Armenia is also a member of the EAEU and also of the CSTO.
Thus, Russia, China, Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan and many other international players were perceived by the US as countries of the second or third order. To be fair, America’s allies in the Middle East – Turkey, Qatar, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia – were not on the guest list.
After all this, should the American media be surprised that Moscow and Beijing are signing a road map for military cooperation for 2021-2025 and are seriously discussing joint space exploration, including through the military? It could hardly be otherwise.
The division of nations into those democratically comprehensible and those authoritatively incomprehensible to Washington goes back to the sadly familiar events of the 1930s and 40s. The only difference is that back then they talked about “racial fullness”. Bombs, by the way, are falling on the heads of the “unfree” just as before.
In the foreseeable future, these processes could lead to the end of a world order dictated from a single centre. In fact, by pitting one against the other, the U.S. is simultaneously exposing some international players to the blows of others.
It is not hard to guess what conclusions America’s military allies in the Middle East – the same Turkey, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, who have been left out of the equation – might draw. Will the only two countries in the region that accepted the invitation to the ‘summit’ – Israel and Iraq – be able to live in an atmosphere of trust with their neighbours? How will the EAEU and CSTO countries view their partner Armenia? This seems to be of little concern to anyone.
Nor do the hosts of the event care that, by inviting Taipei, the Americans are adding fuel to the flames of controversy in perhaps the most explosive conflict in Asia, which could end in World War III: the stand-off between China and Taiwan.
Every country in the world now has the moral authority to form alliances of any kind, including defensive ones. The US is destroying the whole architecture of international relations that has emerged since the Second World War. And there is no doubt that this time the structure will eventually collapse on their own heads.
Yury Mavashev, Izvestia newspaper