Russia and the contradictions of the one-sided world

by Jose Reinaldo Carvalho*

The international situation has become tense as the United States plans a 
unilateral attack on Iraq that may reach devastating proportions. But 
important political contradictions are manifested among the threats to 
peace and their development also conditions international relations.

To start with, there is the isolation of the United States, which has not 
obtained the acceptance of its allies concerning the announced attack on 
the Arab nation.

In fact, many moves are being taken both in the diplomatic field and in 
international political alliances. Despite the intentions of George Bush's 
Government and the suppositions of those who are fascinated by or assent to 
US global totalitarianism, the international situation hardly fits into 
Washington's foreign policy.

Last week Russia announced a co-operation pact with Iraq amounting to US$40 
billion for a period of five years designed to support bilateral relations 
regarding petrochemical, transport, energy and irrigation sectors.

The United States reacted furiously: "To the extent that Russia decides 
that it wants to parade its relationships with countries like Iraq and 
Libya and Syria and Cuba and North Korea, it sends a signal out across the 
globe that that is what Russia thinks is a good thing to do, to deal with 
terrorist states", said US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last week in 
very undiplomatic terms.

Then, two days later, Russian President Vladimir Putin, turning a deaf ear 
to the US officer's outcry, received North Korean President Kim Jong Il in 
Vladivostok. They met for three hours during which Russia agreed to assist 
the construction of a railway connecting the North and South parts of the 
Korean peninsula, an important step towards the definitive pacification of 
the two Koreas and the future unification of the country.

These facts indicate two contradictory trends in the international 
situation.

The first is the maintenance of the US strategy that consistently imposes 
its one-sided hegemony and curbs the emergence of global or regional 
competitors. Rumsfeld's statement echoes the dominant concepts of the Bush 
Government, according to which all countries are divided into those that 
are against or with the United States.

This is the concept on which US imperialism has and will base its relations 
with the other leading countries in the world: Europe, Russia, China and 
Japan.

The other trend implies a sense of multipolarity of which Russia's foreign 
policy is a component.

Public opinion, under the influence of the media, is getting used to 
considering ex-socialist Russia as an appendage of the United States or, in 
broader terms, the West.

This impression became stronger after the attacks on September 11 last 
year, when Putin's government intensely engaged in the "anti-terrorist 
effort" under the terms proposed by Bush, and after the Summit Meeting in 
Rome that ratified the constitution of the "NATO-Russia Council".

There are many controversies, though. Italian journalist and specialist on 
international affairs, Giulietto Chiesa, presents a different analysis of 
the matter in the Italian magazine L'Ernesto:

"As far as Russia is concerned, I believe that at the Meeting in Rome no 
integration has occurred. The idea that is being transformed into common 
sense (Russia joining NATO) is absolutely false. The documents that were 
prepared do not change the substance of the current situation".

The same magazine quotes statements made by the Russian President after the 
Meeting in Rome that are against the expansion of NATO: "since the 
beginning we have maintained the opinion that widening NATO could no be 
justified by any objective need".

When Putin receives the North-Korean President, Russia is making its Asian 
move in a region that concentrates its main interests, where great 
geopolitical contradictions are mixed and where important episodes will 
certainly take place, leading the world towards multipolarity.

In fact, shortly after the summit in Rome that ratified the "NATO-Russia 
Council" the Russian President took part in the second meeting of heads of 
state of the "Shangai Cooperation Organisation" of which Russia, China, 
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are members. Their main 
concern is the creation of US military bases in Central Asia after the war 
in Afghanistan.

At the same time as he approaches the United States and the West, Putin 
reaffirms the strategic value of the agreement signed in 2001 with China, 
convinced as he is that the "co-operation between Russia and China is an 
indispensable factor to the strengthening of peace and international 
safety".

"The People's Republic of China is definitely able to exert an enormous 
influence and play a fundamental role not only in Asia, but in the world, 
in order to create a system in which, be it in the West or in the East, 
countries that take part in regional organisations may act according to a 
single idea: the creation of a multipolar world and the sense of 
responsibility for the fate of humankind".**

The progressive and revolutionary forces will certainly take into account 
such contradictory objective factors in their international action.

* * *

* Reinaldo Carvalho is Vice-President of the Communist Party of Brazil, 
responsible by International Relations.

** Interviewed by the Chinese newspaper People's Daily, June 5, 
2002