Ryzhenkov: If the West doesn't integrate into architecture of emerging world, it will face defeat

Belarusian Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov had a busy week from September 22 to 29 in New York, where the UN General Assembly was held. He participated in thematic sessions, also held bilateral meetings, and had the opportunity to follow the speeches of other heads of delegation.

Is the world divided today? Do UN member states share common goals, or are their paths to achieving them radically different? Maxim Ryzhenkov answered this question in his "Topical Interview."

"If you listen to the theory, it seems like everyone is talking about the same thing. As a good friend of mine says, I'm for everything good and against everything bad, but in reality, when you start digging into the details, everything is completely different," the minister said.

As an example, Maxim Ryzhenkov cited the speech of his Hungarian counterpart, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Economic Relations Péter Szijjártó, a nationally oriented and pragmatic politician. He stated that the most important trend (with which the Belarusian minister agrees – news.by note) is a return to a bi- or multipolar world, not in the sense of multipolar, but rather to a return to the West-East divide. "Western countries do not want to abandon their dominance and dictate, which has recently been the main instrument for implementing policy. But the new countries of the Global South (and this is even more than the South, since Belarus and Russia are not part of it) want something a little different," the Belarusian Foreign Minister emphasized. Maxim Ryzhenkov clearly stated that most countries desire respect for their people, their rights, interests, traditions, values, the path chosen and supported by the people, respect for the leaders chosen by the people, and respect for them on the international stage.

However, for some reason, the West is reluctant to embrace these tenets of the UN Charter. This also applies to the equality of peoples and respect for the path of development.

While countries see a common denominator ahead, the goals they achieve are completely different.

Belarusian Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov said he recently read a book here about how Europeans "discovered" Africa over the course of millennia. Incidentally, Africa was at certain stages even more developed than Europe, and was already known to the Chinese, Arabs, and Indians.

"I came across a quote from a German traveler, a telecoms salesman, who was going there so that German imperialism could follow him and acquire some colonies there. The idea was this: countries, even with resources, were supposed to rely entirely on Europeans and hand over all their resources, because, due to their low level of development and lack of understanding, they would supposedly be unable to properly manage their wealth (and they were obligated to serve the civilized world), so Europeans had the right to come and take whatever they wanted. And if the Africans defended themselves, then for the sake of civilizational development, Europeans had the right to kill them if they didn't allow them to seize the resources," Maxim Ryzhenkov said of what he'd read.

Today, in his opinion, essentially the same thing is happening, only in different ways. "That's why the West is like this, and if it doesn't find a way to integrate into the architecture of the emerging world, where the role of the global majority is growing, then it will face defeat," Maxim Ryzhenkov concluded.