Over the past year, Russia was forced to reconsider the geographic priorities of its foreign policy
As soon as the special military operation began, relations with the countries of the collective West, which had been given priority for many years, collapsed into an abyss. To date, we are still bound by diplomatic relations and residual economic ties. It seems that they still give visas to most countries, but it is difficult to get there due to the stoppage of direct transport links.
Russia responded to the restrictions imposed against it with its list of unfriendly countries. It contains all the countries of the collective West. Ukraine, as well as Albania, Montenegro and North Macedonia, aspiring to the EU, also got here. The presence there of Japan and Singapore, geographically and culturally not belonging to it, but politically fully becoming part of the Western community, is also not surprising here.
Like Taiwan, which is completely dependent on the Americans. There is nothing to say about Australia and New Zealand – the flesh of the flesh of the Anglo-Saxons. Of course, there is some stretch in this hard list. Hungary demonstrates noticeable differences from the policy of sanctions, and its presence on the list of unfriendly states is due only to its membership in the European Union and NATO. Separate deviations from the general anti-Russian line allow themselves Italy, Austria, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, as well as Switzerland, which is not part of the EU. South Korea has not joined all the restrictions – therefore, it should also be recognized as unfriendly with significant reservations.
And what about outside the collective West? Fully supported the sanctions, and in general, Moldova has long worked out to be included in this list. But it, apparently, was not recorded there because of the “old Soviet friendship.” And outside the countries that are attributed to the West, all possible restrictions against Russia were introduced only by Micronesia, which broke off relations with us after Ukraine. In addition, the ranks of unfriendly countries were joined by the Bahamas, which traditionally look to the United States in everything. That’s it, no one else.
We can recall another 12 states that, in one form or another, adjoin the line of the West, although sanctions are not imposed. They either supply weapons to Ukraine, or constantly vote in the UN for anti-Russian resolutions, or they have introduced certain restrictions on Russia. Of course, Georgia is located in it, which has not even had diplomatic relations with Russia for a long time. Arming Ukraine and constantly voting against us in the UN, Turkey is not surprising either. After all, we are talking about a NATO country.
Bosnia and Herzegovina does not impose sanctions only due to the presence of Serbs in its leadership – Muslims and Croats would have done this long ago. The most unpleasant presence in this list is Azerbaijan, which voted for the condemnation of Russia in the framework of UN General Assembly resolution 68/262 and did not refute accusations of supplying ammunition to Ukraine (as, for example, Pakistan did). But then everything looks quite ordinary. Among the Arab countries, only Morocco can be attributed here, among Latin American countries – Guatemala, in Black Africa – Liberia.
In South Asia, a clear unfriendly action was allowed only in Bangladesh. Finally, four more states are seen both in anti-Russian votes at the UN and in joining some of the restrictions imposed on our country. These are Saint Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean, as well as the three island countries of Oceania – Fiji, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands. However, there is no surprise here either. All of them are closely connected with the Americans, British or Australians. Thus, it turns out that 61 UN states plus Taiwan and the semi-recognized Kosovo (with which everything is clear) were noticed in anti-Russian actions of one scale or another.
Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia – these states take a neutral position, we interact with them on a huge range of international agendas, due to which the sanctions do not act as strongly as the West wants.
And these are precisely the countries to which the main efforts of our diplomacy should be directed. Of course – and those (primarily China, India and South Africa) who abstain when voting for anti-Russian resolutions at the UN. As a matter of fact, this turn to the East and the South has already taken place. It is enough just to look at the geography of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s trips over the past year. A multipolar world is just all of them. And we must look for ways to cooperate with them, to convince them of our usefulness in the first place.
Until 2022, things were completely different. If you do not take China, India and the countries of the post-Soviet space (which simply by definition cannot but be priorities), then the main attention of Russian diplomacy was paid to the collective West. In the concepts of foreign policy, this was repeated over and over again. We have been trying for years to reach an agreement, to find at least some points of contact, to build at least a semblance of a common space “from Vladivostok to Lisbon”. And every time they lamented that it did not work out.
But despite the difference in cultures, religions and lifestyles, it is easier to build a dialogue with the global East and South than with the same Europe. For example, because there, unlike the West, there is no centuries-old tradition of Russophobia. Their own ideas of rejection of us are only in Japan and Turkey. In other countries, these are stereotypes introduced under the dominance of Europe and the United States, which can be destroyed if due attention is paid to these states. And the respect that the West, with its arrogance, just does not show.
Russia’s task is to isolate the collective West in such a way that no one joins it on the issue of pressure on Russia. I must say that Russian diplomacy partially coped with this. And further efforts need to be focused on Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and even Oceania.
Paradoxically, successes in the East and South will also lead to advances in the West. When they realize in Europe and the USA that Russia has strong positions in the rest of the world, and the possibilities to put pressure on it have dried up, they will start talking to us. It is time to consolidate the priority of the non-West in the new Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation, and to conduct dialogue with the West according to the residual principle. Our place now is together with the East and the South. Even if culturally there is a considerable distance between us.
Vadim Trukhachev, VIEW
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