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Why Russia and China are outraged by Biden’s ‘Summit for Democracy’

By Costas Raptis

In the shadow of the potentially military tensions that are accumulating primarily in eastern Ukraine and secondarily around Taiwan, a diplomatic-communications organization is gathering the arrows of Russia and China, as they try to isolate them and popularize the new psychology.

The (online) “Summit for Democracy” organized by US President Joe Biden on December 9 and 10 with 110 participants, is described as a “paradoxical event” in a comprehensive statement issued yesterday by the Russian Foreign Ministry, while the Chinese Foreign Minister Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke of a development that would bring “division and negative energy” to the international stage.

The Summit for Democracy aims to fight authoritarianism and corruption, but it is clearly a kind of counter-conspiracy against the emerging Eurasian powers, namely China and Russia.

Those invited to the Summit are not exclusively recognized states. An invitation has been addressed e.g. in Taiwan, but also to the self-proclaimed president of Venezuela Juan Vaido. On the other hand, much has already been said about the exclusion of important US allies and partners: not only (as is logical) the Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf, but also two NATO members, namely Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan and Hungary by Victor Orban (what the latter lacks from Poland’s equally problematic constitutional conception remains unclear or rather interpreted precisely by the recent escalation of tensions on that country’s border with Belarus, on the occasion of the refugee crisis). Still others excluded themselves, such as Singapore’s prime minister, another key Western partner, Lee Hsien Loong, who said last month that his country was not interested in joining an anti-Chinese front.

Out of the Summit are also the Latin American regimes that Washington deems problematic (Venezuela, Bolivia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and of course Cuba), while from the Middle East and North Africa only Israel and Iraq are invited. In South Asia, the Solomon solution is chosen to invite both India and Pakistan, which are in some ways the main object of the West’s “flirtation”, in order to detach themselves from Russian-Chinese influence.

For Russian diplomacy, the challenge is great, as it is considered that instead of the existing United Nations architecture, where the correlations of the end of World War II prevail and the principle of equal participation of member states based on rules of universal law is promoted, a narrower conception that fragmented the international landscape, disguised Western interests as universal, and nullified the principle of non-interference within states. According to Russian argument, in the name of “democracy” within countries, a non-democratic hierarchy between countries is justified and the necessary reform of the United Nations is prevented by the creation of a non-inclusive substitute where the clear rules of international law will be reinterpreted. they try it.

Beijing, on the other hand, is playing the cultural “role” by arguing that there is not a single model of democracy, but many, with unequal efficiency and varying degrees of response to the peculiarities of different cultures, some of which have been tested over time. A recent meeting with his counterparts from India and China called on countries in the region not to fall into the “democracy trap”. This is the reverse attempt to ideologize the neo-Cold War tensions on the part of those who appear as bearers of “traditional values”.

However, yesterday’s announcement of the Russian Foreign Ministry is an attack on all matters.

It typically states that the US, Britain and the EU they can not promote themselves as models of democracy because they have their own time problems with freedom of speech, elections, corruption and human rights. Biased business elites control the media by imposing censorship and self-censorship, digital platforms suppress dissent and promote public opinion manipulation, while mass surveillance by secret services and large corporations is now a reality in the West.

Escalating the attack on Biden personally, the Russian Foreign Ministry adds that the “archaic” US electoral system began to collapse last year, while the protesters on January 6 in Congress were punished with disproportionate sentences. of prisoners around the world, that Guantναnamo remains in operation, but also that lobbying as it is practiced in American politics is legalized corruption.

Britain is similarly accused of monitoring its citizens and police violence against protesters, and the EU. for tolerating the violation of the rights of Russian-speakers in the Baltic Republics, Ukraine and Moldova, but also for “aggressively promoting ultra-liberal values ​​and practices that destroy the Christian roots of European culture.”

The policy of “exporting democracy” through arms to places such as Libya and Afghanistan has long been denounced.

Russia, on the other hand, is described in the same “manifesto” as an “international power with Eurasian and European roots” that does not want to impose its development, political or cultural model on anyone, but aspires to play a stabilizing role in the world. scene, based on the equal dialogue of the sovereign states, the non-interference within them, the avoidance of conflicts, the respect for different cultures and the fair distribution of the benefits of globalization. The “aggressive promotion of the new ethic” is once again denounced and Western countries are urged not to draw new dividing lines, especially at a time when humanity is still battling a pandemic, but to commit to adhering to the UN Charter. .

Whether the ideological characteristics taken on both sides by the new Cold War allow for a meaningful dialogue from now on is the big question that arises.

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Source From: Capital

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