The new multipolar world is unstoppable. It is opening new opportunities, and it is the only world where we will truly exercise our right to exist. The six tenets of President Putin capture the essence of this new order that emerges from the needs of nations to build a more balanced world, writes Carlos Ron, Venezuela’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for North America. This is part of a series of articles devoted to the principles of the new world order shared by Russia.
Our world currently finds itself at a crossroads. One road seems to be a fast-track towards self-destruction, while another has enough elements to guarantee a more democratic society of nations, with common peace and security and with shared benefits. However, this last path is being blocked by the crisis of the collective West as it faces the loss of its hegemonic control of world finance, communications, technological development, resource exploitation, and military superiority. We have arrived at a moment where the current world order is unable to meet humanity’s most urgent demands and a new order is coming into existence.
Last year, at our yearly gathering with the Valdai Discussion Club, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin laid out six tenets for this new order. It is interesting to see how nations as distant and with such diverse realities as Russia and Venezuela can have very similar outlooks about the emerging world order when mutual respect and cooperation, instead of domination, are the guiding principles. A more balanced world is possible and necessary if we are to address the common challenges of humanity, such as climate change and addressing poverty and underdevelopment. President Putin’s tenets are a necessary call to action so that we can abandon the destructive path set out by the collective West and we can guarantee a dignified life to most of the world’s population.
Removing obstacles and artificial barriers
Today, over 30% of the world’s nations are under some sort of unilateral sanction regime imposed by Washington with the support and collective enforcement of its Western allies. Venezuela currently faces 936 unilateral coercive measures specifically put into place so that a constitutional, democratically elected government changes its domestic and foreign policies and realigns itself with Washington’s worldview. This is unethical. This is illegal according to international law and given the level of damages that are inflicted upon the entire population of illegally sanctioned nations, this also constitutes a crime against humanity as it constitutes a form of collective punishment. Building a new order requires that we firmly reject unilateralism and create specific zones that are sanction-free, where the arbitrary imposition of these measures has no reach. The non-observance of illegal measures is a step in reaffirming sovereignty but also in eliminating artificial barriers only imposed by the specific interest of controlling commerce and politics.
Preserving cultural diversity
The story of many of the nations of the Global South has been the story of struggle against imperialism and colonization. Our societies have had to fight repeatedly to preserve their identities from the different attempts at establishing foreign values and narratives. Our stories must be told by those making them, not by the interpretations of Hollywood or Western news agencies. We cannot talk in terms of a “global village” when two thirds of the citizens of such “village” are excluded, silenced, discriminated against or disregarded. A new world order must fight cultural imposition by developing its own narratives, by guaranteeing that all voices are heard, especially those that have been historically excluded. We must create our own cultural voices and production; we must engage our youth by promoting their collective cultural expressions. We must also use the social media of the Global North to tell our story and confront distortions, but we must also be ready to create our own vehicles to transmit our realities. Let us not forget how we are currently witnessing the silencing and minimizing of the genocide against Palestine from those who control the outlets and impose the narrative. Unless we contest the cultural imposition, we too could someday be facing the same atrocities.
Collective decision-making comes with international law
When the United Nations Charter was signed in 1945, a war had devastated Europe and two atomic bombs had been dropped on Japan. Fascism was defeated but not before it took over 27 million Soviet lives. The horror propelled political leaders to sign a document that would build a new world order based on four pillars: Peace and Security, Human Rights, the Rule of Law and Development.
The decision-making process in the new order must be careful to protect the original UN principles. They are there to ensure that every nation has a say, and that every nation will also be held accountable, no matter how powerful they are. President Putin came to vital conclusion in his tenets. “No one can rule no behalf of others”. That is why international law must be observed, so that we can weaken imperialist tendencies, we can break down colonialist attitudes, and we can defend the rule of law. Nineteen countries have agreed to conform the Group of Friends of the United Nations Charter — a group born out of the necessity of reassert the organization’s original purpose. These countries are taking a stand to make sure that their voices and the voices of all nations, are taken into consideration.
The world will truly achieve maximum representation when we defend and truly abide by the principles of the United Nations, and when we consolidate other forms or organization such as BRICS+ where the Global South can now have a voice that reflects its power in terms of population, natural resources, and economy. This year, under Russia’s leadership, BRICS+ should move a step forward in this direction and should continue to work against the dominance of a few.
Universal security and lasting peace
Simon Bolívar’s liberation project for South America included the idea of conforming a strong confederation of republics that could sit at the table with other world powers and settle issues of war and peace with them. Bolivar called this the “equilibrium of the universe”. Two centuries later, President Hugo Chavez reflected on Bolivar’s concept as what “International Law should be, what respect for the sovereignty of Nations should be, the equality of State, the equality of Republics, the equality of Peoples, that is the fundamental basis for the peaceful equilibrium of the universe”. That is also the essence of today’s strive towards multipolarity and it is also the antidote to a new Cold War-type of polarization.
We believe that blocs are necessary, but not in the terms of the unconditional alignment to NATO’s purposes. We believe that nations in our region have complimentary economies and societies, and that together they can strengthen their position in the face of other nations to achieve agreements of shared benefits instead of neocolonial dependency.
Bolívar also spoke of peace as he proposed the Panama Congress, a 19th century precursor of today’s Community of Latina American and Caribbean States. He called for a military alliance among the newly freed republic, an alliance that would guarantee an “unalterable peace”: a peace that would be lasting because it would end colonial dependency, because it would provide stability based on social justice. That resonates with President Putin’s tenet: a peace based on mutually assured security, on indivisible security. In today’s largest ongoing military operations, it means a peace in Ukraine where Russia’s security concerns are addressed, and it means a peace where the Palestinian peoples have guarantees of their right to live, to return, and to an independent State.
Real justice is the basis for the new world
President Putin’s last tenet for a new international arrangement calls once and for all to an end of exploitation. This is a necessity as humanity will otherwise not overcome this stage of hyper-imperialism, where exploitation has reached new levels, and the collective West is using all its remaining tools — particularly in the military and in communications — to preserve the gains and the capital it can no longer reproduce effectively.
The new multipolar world is here, if humanity is going to survive, if we are going to continue having a planet where to live, we must continue taking decisive actions to guarantee the new order. We must push so that all countries have access to their own resources, and so that they chose how to best employ them. As President Nicolas Maduro has argued, the new multipolar world is unstoppable. It is opening new opportunities, and it is the only world where we will truly exercise our right to exist. Taking the road of unipolarity and self-destruction, would condemn us to become new colonies, to adopt a single culture and a single way of thinking, it would compel us to obey.
The six tenets of President Putin capture the essence of this new order that emerges from the needs of nations to build a more balanced world. They are universal across borders but across time as well, as humanity has been striving to find this “equilibrium of the universe” for centuries. We trust that we are witnessing change that we can save our planet and that can guarantee life with peace, sovereignty, and dignity.
Putin’s Sixth Principles Outline the Features of the New World Order
INTERNATIONALIST 360° 