Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 24th(International observation) Russia-Ukraine conflict: The United States has made waves and the world has suffered greatly.
Xinhua News Agency reporter Huang He Deng Xianlai Li Jizhi
Russia has been carrying out special military operations in Ukraine for a month. Now, instead of taking practical measures to ease the situation, the United States is constantly "fanning the flames" through weapons assistance and sanctions.
Analysts pointed out that the continuous eastward expansion of NATO led by the United States is the root cause of the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. In order to maintain its hegemony, the United States has sacrificed the interests of other countries, including its European allies. This practice has already caused dissatisfaction among all parties. To solve the Ukrainian crisis, the urgent task is to promote dialogue and negotiations between the parties concerned. The long-term way is to abandon the cold war mentality and truly build a balanced, effective and sustainable security structure, so that Europe will be free from war and other regions and countries will not be implicated.
Hegemonic thinking makes waves
On March 23rd, NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg attended a press conference in Brussels, Belgium. NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg said on the 23rd that NATO will significantly increase the number of combat troops deployed in its eastern wing, while reiterating that Ukraine’s accession to NATO is "not on the agenda". Xinhua News Agency reporter Zheng Huansong photo
"The United States and NATO have turned a blind eye to Russia’s concerns. They only care about maintaining hegemony and constantly violate the policy of cooperation with Russia promised after the end of the Cold War." William jones, president of the Washington branch of Global Strategic Information magazine, said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency a few days ago.
After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the United States claimed to be the "winner of the Cold War" and squeezed Russia’s development space through NATO’s eastward expansion for a long time. As a product of the cold war, NATO did not follow the cold war into history, but gradually became a military group engaged in camp confrontation under the leadership of the United States. In recent years, NATO has also tried to win over Ukraine, which has touched Russia’s strategic bottom line.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that NATO’s continued eastward expansion is unacceptable, but the West has never been able to effectively respond to the "red line" drawn by Russia. In December last year, Russia asked the United States and NATO for written guarantees on security issues. Since then, Russia has conducted intensive dialogues with the United States, NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on security issues, but no substantive results have been achieved.
Analysts pointed out that the United States is the real initiator of the Ukrainian crisis. Today, the United States is still trying to gain economic and political benefits from this crisis, and at the same time, it is constantly demonizing Russia’s security threat to Europe and deterring Europe from pursuing strategic autonomy, thus consolidating American hegemony.
On the one hand, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has made the American military-industrial complex make a fortune in war. Recently, the share price of American military enterprises has risen significantly. Franklin Spinney, a former official of the US Department of Defense, hit the nail on the head and pointed out that the US military-industrial complex used this Russian-Ukrainian conflict to exaggerate its fear of Russia, aiming at creating an opportunity for a new round of arms expenditure, so that the military-industrial complex would benefit from the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and other regional conflicts for a long time.
On the other hand, the United States used the Ukrainian crisis to strengthen its control over Europe on security issues, making it more difficult for Europe to seek strategic autonomy. The French "Echo" recently published an article saying that the Ukrainian crisis shows that Europe has no ability to defend itself alone and still needs the umbrella of the United States.
Many countries in the world have suffered greatly.
The Ukrainian crisis occurred in Europe, and when it comes to the impact of the crisis, European countries bear the brunt. A large number of Ukrainians go to other European countries, and how to properly handle these people has become a difficult problem for European countries. The Ukrainian crisis has had a serious impact on global energy and agricultural products trade, endangering the global economic recovery. The whole international community has to pay for this conflict provoked by the United States.
On March 11th, people evacuated through the humanitarian passage in Ilpin, Kiev, Ukraine. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Diego Herrera)
According to United Nations data, since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, 2.2 million Ukrainian residents have left their homes, and this number may exceed 4 million in the future. Many of these Ukrainians who have left their hometown will go to neighboring European countries. According to Newsweek, such a large-scale population movement has never been seen in Europe since World War II, which may cause serious economic and political problems to the receiving countries. Slovakia, for example, has declared a state of emergency due to the influx of Ukrainians.
The energy and food crises triggered by the Ukrainian crisis have also caused headaches in Europe. The EU relies heavily on Russian energy. After the West announced sanctions against Russia, energy prices in EU countries have been rising. Ukraine itself is a "European granary". Coupled with the driving effect of rising energy prices, European food prices have also continued to rise recently.
Jean Pisani-Ferry, a French economist and a senior researcher at the Brussels Institute of European and Global Economics, recently wrote an article to measure the economic losses that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict may cause to the EU. He pointed out that in order to cope with the impact of energy and food, the public expenditure of the EU may increase by 175 billion euros this year, which is expected to account for about 1.25% of the GDP of EU countries this year. The Ukrainian crisis will shape Europe’s policy choices in the next few years or even decades.
The International Monetary Fund believes that unprecedented sanctions against Russia will harm the economic and trade cooperation of European countries. At the same time, the whole world will be negatively affected by the Ukrainian crisis and sanctions against Russia, which will be manifested in slowing economic growth and accelerating inflation.
On March 23rd, a man stood in front of an empty vegetable salad shelf in a supermarket in caceres. The increase in fuel prices has affected the market supply of some commodities in Spain. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Gustavo Balente)
Multinational economic experts have warned that the Ukrainian crisis will increase the prices of commodities such as food and energy, which in turn will push up inflation. The COVID-19 epidemic has not yet ended, which will bring severe challenges to the global economic recovery, especially those developing countries with single economic structure and weak economic foundation, and will more obviously feel the spillover effect brought by this crisis.
Persuade and promote talks without fear of coercion
Since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the United States, based on the deep-rooted Cold War zero-sum thinking and group confrontation thinking, has been trying to win over Europe and introduce sanctions against Russia one after another, and at the same time, it has used both soft and hard measures and coerced other countries to put pressure on Russia. However, many countries, including China, expressed their opposition to unilateral sanctions and supported Russia and Ukraine to maintain the momentum of peace talks and resolve disputes through dialogue and negotiation.
Wang Yi, State Councilor and Foreign Minister of China, said on the 19th that China has always advocated maintaining peace and opposing war. This is not only rooted in China’s historical and cultural traditions, but also a consistent foreign policy of China. China will continue to make independent judgments based on the merits of the matter itself and in an objective and fair manner. China will never accept any external coercion and pressure, nor will it oppose any unwarranted accusations and suspicions against China.
On March 7th, at the UN headquarters in new york, the UN Security Council held an open meeting on Ukrainian humanitarian issues. Zhang Jun, Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations, attended the meeting, introduced the six-point proposal put forward by State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on preventing a large-scale humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, expounded China’s position on resolving the Ukrainian crisis, and called for ensuring the safety and smoothness of the humanitarian corridor. (Xinhua News Agency reporter Xie Yushe)
Many countries in the world have made it clear that they do not agree with the United States and other western countries’ efforts to incite other countries to impose sanctions on Russia. After the outbreak of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the United States has been pressing India to show its position, but India has not publicly condemned Russia. Indian Prime Minister Modi recently called on the West to support dialogue to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in a call with Putin. India is willing to provide all assistance to ease the situation in Russia and Ukraine.
In the face of the wooing of the United States and other western countries, Pakistan also refused. Pakistani Prime Minister imran khan recently criticized foreign forces for trying to put pressure on Pakistan on the Russian-Ukrainian issue, saying that Pakistan will continue to make decisions in the best interests of the country and people. He said that Pakistan will remain neutral and cooperate with those countries that are committed to ending the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
In Africa, many national politicians have long seen through the nature of the United States threatening other countries, and all have expressed their positions in support of dialogue to resolve conflicts. Egyptian President Seyce said that Egypt supports all diplomatic means to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and hopes that the two sides will solve the problem through political channels as soon as possible to avoid further deterioration of the situation. South African President Ramaphosa said that the root of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict lies in NATO’s eastward expansion over the years. War and violence will never really solve any problems, and South Africa insists on mediation, dialogue and negotiation. Ugandan President Museveni said that the Russian-Ukrainian issue exposed the double standards of the West. Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade issued a statement pointing out that Zimbabwe does not support any form of unilateral sanctions against any country in connection with the Ukrainian crisis, which violates the UN Charter and unilateral sanctions can never solve any problems.
The American "Boston Globe" website published an article saying that not all the world is against Russia. In fact, most countries in Asia, Africa and South America are still cooperating with Russia or trying to show a neutral image to the outside world. According to the article on the website of The Wall Street Journal, many non-western countries do not believe that the West is willing and able to control the economic impact of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in a way that safeguards the interests of non-western countries. (Participating in reporters: Yu Rong, Liu Fang)
