BY GUY METTAN
Columnist, Bon pour la tête / Arrêt sur info / Weltwoche, Switzerland
In July of 2023, the 23rd meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) took place virtually in India during which a Declaration of the Council of Heads of State was adopted and an enlargement to Iran and Belarus was decided, among other achievements.
At the end of August, the annual BRICS meeting in Johannesburg ended with the decision to expand the group of the five founding members to eleven, including six new countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, UAE, Ethiopia and Argentina. At the beginning of September, the G20 meeting in New Delhi ended with a joint declaration reinforcing the point of view of the countries of the South and refusing to align on the requests of the West.
And in October, we had in Beijing the 3rd Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation with a very large circle of participants from dozens of countries. For ten years, the BRI is transforming the economy of the Eurasian continent and shaping the economy and the trading routes of the whole planet.
These events are literally changing the face of the old world and creating a new reality. A new world order, multi-polar and more equitable, is emerging despite the efforts of the Western powers to keep its hegemony on the international scene. This is also interesting to notice that these developments are made on a pacific and non-aggressive basis, as we could notice with the rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran under the Chinese auspices and with the publication of the text “A Global Community of Shared Future” by the State Council of China. The spirit of this text is very inclusive and collaborative.
In short time, much progress has been made, at a quiet but resolute pace. It’s better to move forward slowly but surely than to multiply empty rhetoric. But let’s be under no illusions: there will be a huge resistance to these moves. The West will not stand idly by and will do everything in its power to torpedo the construction of a truly multipolar world, by trying to divide and conquer, as it has done so well up to now. Never in the history of mankind has a dominant or hegemonic power shared its power without a fight, out of a pure spirit of charity.
That’s why I think it’s essential for advocates of a multipolar world and an equitable order to improve the economic and political integration of the countries of Asia and the global South on the one hand, and the attractiveness of this process on the other. When it comes to soft power, the West is still unbeatable. It has mastered the content, networks and communication media that ensure that its narrative reaches a larger audience than that of any other country in the world. It is well-versed in the techniques of propaganda and message dissemination. Its media will not easily share the views and give the floor to the rest of the world. It also has the advantage of speaking with a single voice, from Japan to Canada, from Australia to the United States and, of course, in Europe. This union is its strength, because no single BRI, BRICS or SCO member, however powerful, is yet capable of competing with the West on the international stage and in the organizations that count.
On the other hand, when the Global South and other partner countries are united and working towards a common goal, namely to reform global governance, build a fairer world order and better distribution of wealth, its power of conviction and attraction is more powerful than that of the West. If we want to improve the soft power of the multipolar order, it is essential to move away from particular interests, from the national visions of one member or another, and to work on what unites us, to define common objectives, based on the values and principles of fairness, mutual respect, power-sharing and the equality of civilizations that are at the origin of the multipolar conception of the world.
It is in this spirit that, together with colleagues, we are proposing to diplomats, academic experts, journalists and other supporters of the multipolar cause and equitable economic development, from China and other cooperating countries, to set up a “Multipolar Institute” in Geneva and other world cities, a network think tank on multipolarity, in order to stimulate and disseminate the concept of multipolarity and multipolar thinking within international organizations and NGOs that are supposed to defend multilateralism and represent the international community.
On the diplomatic front, there is already an association of “Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations”, which brings together over 20 countries including China and is coordinated by the ambassador of Venezuela, and whose aim is to promote true multilateralism, with respect for each of the nations making up the United Nations. The ground is therefore ripe for the creation of a more active think-tank capable of putting forward ideas and concrete proposals to advance the multipolar cause and the economic development on a more equitable and sustainable basis.
It’s now time to enlarge this movement to the media all around the world in order to provide to them exciting ideas, relevant arguments, deep analyses, and provocative experts’ views embodying the nascent multipolar world.
*The views and opinions expressed in the articles are solely those of the individual authors and do not reflect the position of the Secretariat of the Belt and Road Journalist Network.