The Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok left its mark, much more than in previous years, and opened up the East to a series of economic and geopolitical opportunities that no one expected.
The Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok left its mark, much more than in previous years, and opened up the East to a series of economic and geopolitical opportunities that no one expected. Or, rather, that no one in the West had been able to see, and perhaps now it may be too late. What matters is what has already been done and what will be achieved. Let us try to give an account of the event.
The South-East Asia goes to Multipolarity
The most important panel of the entire Forum was certainly the one organised by the Multipolarity Forum, devoted entirely to South-East Asia going to multipolarity. The speakers present, almost all from countries in the region mentioned, were coordinated by Prof. Aleksandr Dugin and his team, with the exceptional participation of Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. Also present were the Ambassador of India and the Ambassador of North Korea.
For the first time, numerous experts from regional states came together to affirm the strong will their countries have to participate in the advent of a multipolar world. As Prof. Zhang Weiwei of Shanghai’s Fudan University explained, what is happening ‘in the East’ is a real change over a long period of time that we may one day call Pax Multipolaris, and which finds its cradle in Eurasia and its application in Asian Wisdom, which from the time of Confucius until today teaches one to plan over a long period of time, carefully coordinating all the details and working patiently so that each element is ordered in its proper place. A methodology that is alien to most Western countries, where instead an aggressive international policy based on high-speed transitions (and transactions) prevails.
But paradigms are changing, and indeed it is time to rethink the legitimacy of the paradigms that have hitherto dictated the law. The nephew of the South African leader Mandela, Nkosi Mandela, has emphasised that multipolarity is not and must not be a replica of western-centric models, nor the imposition of a stronger on a weaker: it is necessary for countries with greater polarity to help those who ask for it, so as to promote their integral development. And as the former Prime Minister of Nepal, Mudhar Nepal, added, the time has finally come for the tense small states of the East, of which there are many, to find the courage to emancipate themselves from the Anglo-American yoke and begin a path of true self-determination.
Precisely along these lines, journalist Pepe Escobar emphasised the need to control the pace of the multi-polar transition, which is a multi-speed process, and this must not become a reason for any of the countries involved to be overwhelmed. What is happening in Asia and what was seen at the EEF is an example of a development made to the measure of each country, with different times and modalities, because there is a new global trend being traced and it is up to the countries and peoples to define this trend, not the financial elites or transnational potentates.
Man is at the centre of the community and this shift must be understood and strongly reaffirmed, as Konstantin Malofeev specified. A passage of re-humanisation that is possible when the old paradigm of global control, imposed by the U.S. after the collapse of the Soviet Union, is now abandoned and replaced with a rediscovery of the different traditions of peoples. Because multipolarity must be, as Maria Zakharova stressed, a common good, a common work, a common victory, for which the Russian Federation has been striving for years, together with an increasing number of countries that are allies and friends.
Multipolarity is a given now, even for South East Asia, which is finally on the road to independence from the U.S. yoke.
Putin unplugged
The most awaited moment was the plenary session. And there something great happened. We saw Russia, China and South East Asia together. Boom!
President Putin was unplugged. In an extremely precise and posed speech, he got straight to the point: Russia’s Far East is the new frontier and for this reason, long-term expansion is planned, already achieving results in the short term. In fact, even ‘anticipating the needs of the future’, through new energy routes, world record infrastructure and transport, a new Northen Sea Route with a freight capacity that has already grown five times since last year, and then large investments in the technological and scientific sector, from research to construction sites. A programme already completed for the next 25 years, without forgetting one of the most reiterated points during the forum: the reaffirmation of local autonomies, indigenous cultures and traditions.
All this – and much more – paved the way for a process that has taken hold all over the world and which, Putin said, was not wanted by Russia, but was a consequence of American choices: de-dollarisation. The new arrangement of the international markets, which now dialogue with national currencies and are dropping the dollar-standard, is due to the fact that countries that were once subservient to the dollar are now stronger than the dollar itself and therefore have no reason to remain slaves to it. An entirely logical and legitimate reasoning.
Russia will stop at no provocation, no sanction, no Western threat, because, as Putin said, the stakes are global.
Ibrahim got the point
A great new leader, known to few, has entered the scene: Anwar Ibrahim, Prime Minister of Malaysia. A true outsider. Very few words, but all extremely powerful.
Why, Ibrahim asked, do so many people in the world respect and trust Russia? Because it has succeeded in transcending its borders and, as a result, has captivated other peoples, gaining global respect and admiration not with wars and take-away ‘democracy’, but with a solid and careful foreign policy, the proposition of multipolarism as a new paradigm, and a soft power that has motivated people to think differently about the whole international order.
Thanks to Russia’s commitment, the global south is now emerging. And so it is that Malaysia announced right during the plenary session that it will officially apply to join the BRICS+. This is a very clear message to the West: the pawns on the chessboard have changed, the game has changed, it is time to say goodbye and move on. This announcement had a huge impact on Western markets, with big drops the following day, while it benefited Eastern markets that found themselves suddenly strengthened. Why? Simple: because after Malaysia, other countries in the region will demand the same. It is only a matter of time, as long as it takes to end diplomatic and trade agreements and begin to disengage from military and strategic ones.
The words spent by Ibrahim regarding Palestine have a strong impact: it is time to stop acting with political hypocrisy, it is time to consider the Palestinians as human beings, not as animals or second-class people. He called for a common commitment and an outstretched hand towards Palestine, against the occupying Zionist entity. Because truth and freedom must always go together, otherwise they become a deception.
Zheng the Confucian
Finally, the out-of-class Han Zheng, young and promising Vice-President of the People’s Republic of China. Attention ladies and gentlemen, because the precision of his words and the depth of them will be remembered in the future.
China is Russia’s first ally and together they have developed a system of strategic development of relations for a new era, in which ‘multipolarity’ is increasingly meaning ‘peace’. Because that is the goal, Zheng said, and that is the new global trend. A world not controlled by the UK-U.S. is a world that is working towards a shared peace. What does the West do instead? It sanctions, it threatens, it attacks, it corrupts. A way of acting that cannot be accepted because it is bad for the whole world.
That is why a long-term, multilateral, multi-nodal, multipolar development agreement is the only way to open up humanity to a different vision of common life on this planet, with a security that will flourish the moment we are able to abandon the war-without-end mentality typical of the Cold War period, imposed by the USA. Only then will a peaceful world be possible.
The peace of Confucius, the wisdom of Asia, can only be understood by those who embrace its mystery and decide to put themselves in the school of this great master.
Here is the Pact of the East, here is another important building block for a multipolar world.