Megalomania in NATO and the EU – construction elsewhere

The following article is not an in-depth analysis. It is a few flashlights, but more than just a snapshot. The past few weeks have seen several important events: Election campaign in the US, 75^th anniversary NATO summit in Washington, elections in EU-Europe and the UK, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Astana, conference on 70 years on ‘Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence’ in Beijing.

On 6 July, during the US election campaign, US President Biden said in an interview with US broadcaster ABC¹: “You know, I’m not just campaigning, I’m running the world. That sounds like an exaggeration, but we are the most important nation in the world.” (emphasis km)
  Indeed, the USA has the largest military machine in the world, maintains the largest number of military bases in the world and has fought the largest number of wars in the last 30 years... However, there are well-founded doubts regarding its contributions to development, or the contribution of US policy for the benefit of mankind. There are just as many doubts about the country’s political personnel, including the president who thinks he rules the world and the most important nation in the world.

75 years of NATO: 
Endless war in Ukraine

On 9 July, this president also opened the NATO summit in Washington. There was no mention of how to establish peace in the world. But right at the beginning of the summit, there were renewed pledges of arms to Ukraine – dosed in such a way that an end to the war should be delayed for as long as possible (!) – and more people must die every day. “Our message to Moscow and the world is clear: our support for Ukraine is strong and steadfast,” said Biden in a joint statement with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the heads of state and government of Romania, the Netherlands and Italy.
  The summit declaration of the NATO heads of state and government from 10 July² is a comprehensive self-praise, glosses over NATO’s past and present, invokes a global claim to power, is steeped in bloc thinking and the enemy image of Russia/China, and is bellicose.
  The German public broadcaster ARD, meanwhile, focussed on the state of the US president³: “In his speech […] he […] visibly endeavoured to dispel any doubts about his ability to deliver. His tongue did not slip, he did not lose his train of thought. Biden presented himself as a fighter – and as the leader of the free world in front of his home audience. However, this was largely due to the technical assistance provided by a teleprompter: As usual at such events, he read out the text in full.” Three days later, the same German broadcaster⁴ reported on the US President’s renewed lapses: “Not a disaster, but no vision for the future either. For days, there has been only one topic in the US election campaign: Would President Biden be up to another term in office? At a closely watched press conference, he achieves the minimum goal.”

Stones from the glass house

Why European NATO powers are only now throwing stones at the US President so shortly before the US elections is an interesting question. Aren’t these powers sitting in glass houses themselves? A look at the three most powerful European NATO states – the UK, France and Germany – reveals that their governments have all been voted out of office in recent weeks. The British Conservatives received just 23.7 % of the vote in the House of Commons elections. The French President’s party received 20 % of the vote in the first round of the National Assembly elections and only 23.2 % in the second. And the three parties of the German government coalition, which are particularly loud in their war drumming, would achieve just 32 % in today’s federal elections (according to a poll in the ARD Deutschlandtrend from the beginning of July 2024). This corresponds almost exactly to the result of the three governing parties in the EU Parliament elections in June 2024: 31 %.
  Astonishing that all of these (still) powerful parties continue to act as if they are the greatest. However, most citizens are realising more and more that these powerful people are lacking constructive thinking, constructive ideas and that almost every word is dressed-up ideology.
  Let us therefore look to other parts of the world: Astana and Beijing.

Promoting peace

Of course, given the complexity of international relations, I cannot say with certainty that the words and decisions made there will, or can, be followed by precisely such actions. Nevertheless, what we hear and read can promote peace. And as a citizen of a Western country, I would wish that there were governments in our countries that would join hands to work together for a better world – and give up Western claims to power, which contradict every natural sense of justice (and the formulated law): for the benefit of all people around the world.

SCO summit in Astana

As was to be expected, the summit meeting of the states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)⁵ at the beginning of July 2024 in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana, was pressed into the usual Western enemy image. “Summit meeting of the SCO states: Xi and Putin swear in allies against the West” was the headline on n-tv on 4 July, “Putin and Xi deepen anti-Western alliance” on the same day on ZDF ... and the German “taz”: “Summit with Putin, Xi and Erdogan: Showdown of autocrats”. I recommend reading the 24-page final declaration⁶ to judge for yourself. The SCO is following the principles of the UN Charter and is gradually expanding the range of its concerns, tasks and members. Belarus was admitted as a new full member. Security issues now go beyond internal security and the fight against terrorism. It is also about protection against attacks by other powers. The SCO is striving for a global security architecture that complies with international law and provides equal security for all countries.
  At the conference, the Russian President Putin once again declared his willingness to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine and characterised the SCO as follows: “Our cooperation is not directed against anyone, we do not create blocs or alliances, we only act in the interests of our peoples.”
  The summit’s final declaration speaks of ‘tectonic shifts’ in global politics, the global economy and other areas of international relations. A new quality of international politics is needed “in a spirit of mutual respect, justice, equality and mutually beneficial cooperation”.

70 years of the ‘Five Principles 
of peaceful coexistence’ …

No less noteworthy was the international conference held in Beijing at the end of June to mark the 70^th anniversary of the declaration of the ‘Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence’, which the Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai (in charge), the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the Prime Minister of Myanmar, U Nu, had published in a joint declaration in June 1954. These principles are 1. mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, 2. mutual non-aggression, 3. mutual non-interference in internal affairs, 4. equality and 5. mutual benefit in peaceful coexistence. These five principles were adopted a few years later by the Non-Aligned Movement.

… and a speech by Xi Jinping

In Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping gave a detailed speech to mark the anniversary⁷ in which he once again paid tribute to the five principles and emphasised their great importance, also for our present and the future shaping of international relations (see box). Xi Jinping emphasised that good relations between states, the joint maintenance of world peace and the promotion of development and progress for humanity have always been important issues of concern to all nations. The five principles had become an open and universally applicable basic norm for international relations and fundamental principles of international law. They had set a historical benchmark for international relations and international rule of law and served as the most important guideline for the establishment and development of relations between countries with different social systems. They also strongly supported the efforts of developing countries to co-operate and strengthen themselves through unity.
  The five principles had formulated a ‘vision’. The starting point is the fact that all countries see a common future and have intertwined interests. It is about a model of equality and coexistence in international relations. About a prevailing trend in the world towards peace, development, co-operation and win-win situations with new prospects for peace and progress. About multipolarity and economic globalisation. About new paths for development and security.
  Thus, the world of nations was facing the tasks of upholding the principle of sovereign equality, consolidating the foundation of spiritual respect, realising the vision of peace and security, joining forces to achieve prosperity, promoting fairness and justice, and adopting an open and inclusive mindset. China was determined to play a formative role in all of this.
  If you search for German-language references to this conference on Google, there are virtually no hits. The same applies if you search in western English-speaking countries. Which brings us back to the beginning of this article.  •

¹ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kpibhlagG0
² https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_227678.htm
³ https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/amerika/usa-nato-ukraine-flugabwehr-100.html
⁴ https://www.tageschau.de/ausland/biden-pressekonferenz-usa-100.html
⁵ SOC member states: Belarus, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and the People’s Republic of China; Afghanistan and Turkey have observer status; dialogue partners are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cambodia, Egypt, Kuwait, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
⁶ authorised English translation: https://eng.sectsco.org/20240709/1438929.html
⁷ authorised English translation: https://english.www.gov.cn/news/202407/04/content_WS6686c48ac6d0868f4e8e8e25.html