EIR LEAD EDITORIAL FOR TUESDAY APRIL 4, 2023
It’s No Longer a Unipolar World; Now Let’s Go Build A New One
April 3, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—It’s become so obvious that even the self-deluded bankers of the City of London and Wall Street have to admit it: They can no longer order every nation on the planet to do their bidding, and expect them to bow and scrape and obediently commit suicide. “It’s no longer a unipolar world,” a leading financial strategist at the global investment bank RBC Capital Market (Royal Bank of Canada) ruefully remarked to the Financial Times today.
The speculative banker happened to be referring to Saudi Arabia’s surprise announcement today that they, and a half-dozen other oil-producing nations, had decided to reduce oil output in order to firm prices, working in tandem with Russia in that effort—when the British and the Biden administration had demanded that they do the exact opposite. But the banker’s comment could equally have been made about a half-dozen related developments over the recent period.
The Saudis and Chinese have agreed to the purchase of oil with yuan, using a non-dollar clearing house arrangement that sidesteps the dollar-based SWIFT interbank settlement system and uses China’s CIPS system instead. The two countries are matching those financial arrangements with the construction of a large, $12 billion oil refinery in Panjin to handle some 210,000 bpd of Saudi crude.
Brazil and China have likewise agreed to carry out their growing volume of trade and investment in yuan and reais, and again the CIPS will function as the clearing house, not SWIFT. This area has grown so rapidly that the yuan has just replaced the euro as the second largest currency held by Brazil’s central bank. Here too major physical-economic development projects are under discussion—including the construction of a bi-oceanic rail corridor linking the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of South America—and it is likely that Brazil’s President Lula will sign a Memorandum of Understanding to join the Belt and Road Initiative when he meets with China’s President Xi Jinping in Beijing on April 14. Lula will also talk to Xi about the urgent need for a negotiated solution to the war in Ukraine, which threatens to escalate into a full-blown thermonuclear war between superpowers at any moment. Both leaders have presented peace proposals to that end.
Similarly, South Africa’s Foreign Minister has presented a proposal for Brazil, India, China and South Africa—which together with Russia make up the BRICS nations—take the initiative in hosting negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. South Africa is also actively preparing to host the upcoming August summit of the BRICS, which will see a significant expansion of that group into the BRICS-Plus.
Saudi Arabia, Brazil, South Africa—three major nations and important regional powers in the Middle East, South America and Africa—are all acting on the simple recognition that it’s no longer a unipolar world. They are also increasingly cognizant—as are the population in the United States and Europe—that peace and development go hand in hand.
In fact, as the title of the April 15-16 Schiller Institute conference asserts, “without the development of all nations, there can be no lasting peace for the planet.”
The former President of Guyana Donald Ramotar will be one of the featured speakers at that conference, and he has written an article that properly can be viewed as a discussion document towards the deliberation that will occur there. Under the headline “On the Precipice of Nuclear War: Russia/Ukraine Conflict,” Ramotar writes:
“At the moment there are some important proposals on the table which deserve serious consideration. In the first instance we have the proposal by the Pope to use the Vatican as a place for negotiating peace. This must be supported.
“There are proposals from Helga Zepp-LaRouche and the Schiller Institute. She has proposed ten points which also link peace to development. These must be given very serious consideration as well.
“More recently, President Lula of Brazil has made proposals which are aimed at getting countries involved in bringing an end to this dangerous situation.
“The proposal by President Xi of China is well thought out and can make an important contribution to the restoration of Peace in Europe and the world.
“All the proposals that are on the table individually and collectively can be the basis for the beginning of the process towards peace. All of these proposals are worthwhile and have many common positions that should be explored.”
Register for the April 15-16 Schiller Institute conference.