In front of the TV screen and scrolling on the cell phone, a war of shots and information intertwines like never before in the history of humanity. At the same time, it is possible to see the movement of Russian troops within the urban perimeter of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, while the country’s former president Petro Poroshenko, surrounded by soldiers, stops everything he is doing to speak, live, with the CNN Internationalat 6:30 am US time.
Half an hour later, a company correspondent, working in Kiev, interviews Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov via the Internet. He guarantees that Russia does not want to see the neighboring country “in the hands of the West and neo-Nazis”.
The version war is strong and disputes every second of the attention and minds of the world’s population. China is trying to take the place of what Americans like to call “the adult in the room.”
In other words, the kids are fighting and someone has to break up the fight and set the rules. The Beijing government did not support the military invasion of Ukraine, but condemned the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which led to conflict with Russia.
On this point, he agrees with former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. In an article published in 2014 in the Washington Post, the Republican and American right-wing strategist pontificated: “Russia has to accept that Ukraine cannot become a satellite of Russia and the West has to understand that Ukraine can never just be a foreign country.”
For Kissinger, it was clear even then that Ukraine should always be a bridge between Russia and the rest of Europe.
Visionary, the former Secretary of State listed the essential measures to be taken to avoid conflict. And I highlight two.
- Ukraine must not be allowed to join NATO, the armed wing of European allies, but it must have freedom of economic and political association with whatever it wants.
- Russia cannot annex Crimea. It must have free elections, with the presence of observers. And the status of the Black Sea Fleet, Russian naval base, should be clear.
Without such measures, Kissinger said in 2014, the march towards confrontation will accelerate.
Ukraine was the last straw that was needed to overcome Russian dissatisfaction with NATO’s expansion towards its border. The last bastion.
Chinese diplomacy
Chinese diplomacy enters the scene, which, in the midst of the crisis, gains space to exercise its positions. In a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs last week, Beijing looked to recent world history for arguments.
“When the United States commanded five waves of NATO expansion eastward to Russia’s doorstep and deployed strategic strike weapons in breach of a promise made to Russia, did they think about the consequences of pushing a great country against the wall?”
China’s criticism of Washington’s steps continues with other questions:
- Did the United States respect Iraq’s sovereignty and integrity when it launched a military attack on Baghdad based on unsubstantiated accusations?
- Did the United States respect the sovereignty and integrity of Afghanistan when American drones killed innocent people in Kabul and other cities?
At the UN, China did not support Russia’s armed invasion and continued to call for a negotiated, diplomatic exit. At the same UN that met to discuss the situation in Ukraine on the night of Wednesday, February 23, 2022, and in the middle of the meeting discovered that President Vladimir Putin was giving the green light to start the military offensive.
The situation left a question in the air that resurfaces from time to time.
In March 2003 the US government declared to the UN Security Council that “diplomacy has failed”. After presenting false evidence regarding an alleged weapons of mass destruction program in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, the United States failed to convince the UN Security Council.
Only 4 of the 15 countries present voted in favor of military intervention in the country. Despite being defeated in the international body, the United States formed a coalition with the countries that managed to raise and marched to war.
Now, the UN Security Council has voted a resolution condemning Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and demanding that the country withdraw all troops it has in the neighboring country immediately and unconditionally.
Of the 15 countries on the Council, 11 voted in favor, including Brazil, 3 abstained and only one voted against: Russia. But she is one of the five permanent members, with veto power in the Council. Therefore, the resolution was rejected.
But it is as the French diplomat said. Nobody voted against. China did not align itself with Russia, but to avoid confrontation, it preferred to abstain, like India and the United Arab Emirates.
But the two historic moments reinforce a hopelessness in the world mechanism of conflict mediation. In the possibility of the UN playing the role for which it was created: to avoid new military confrontations on this planet of ours.
Apparently, our species has an irremediable suicidal tendency that sees a solution in war as well as seems to believe that the planet’s resources are infinite.
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
