The end of omnipotence
The West and the SCO summit
By Jörg Kronauer
[This article posted on 7/5/2024 is translated from the German on the Internet, Ende der Allmacht https://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/478780.ende-der-allmacht.html.]

Russia is ready to start peace talks with Ukraine: President Vladimir Putin officially confirmed this on Thursday at the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Astana. He also reminded the audience that he had set out his conditions for a ceasefire in mid-June: the future neutrality of Ukraine and the withdrawal of the four regions that Russia has occupied. At the end of March 2022, Moscow was still willing to renounce the annexation of territories beyond Crimea and to be content with a guaranteed non-alignment of Kiev. But since Ukraine has rejected this, bolstered by one of the – now quite numerous – failed prime ministers of Britain, Putin insists on territorial gains in addition to Ukraine's neutrality. However, as he confirmed in Astana, he is willing to negotiate.

In addition, he thanked the other SCO states in Kazakhstan's capital for their efforts to mediate between Moscow and Kiev. China in particular has always been keen to get the shooting and bombing back into the negotiating mode. President Xi Jinping held further talks with Putin on this in Astana. SCO member India has also tried to achieve something through diplomatic channels. And among the so-called dialogue partners of the SCO, there are several states that have even achieved concrete mediation successes, for example the reopening of the Black Sea for grain shipments or an exchange of prisoners: Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have distinguished themselves in this regard. In Astana, Putin also discussed possible steps towards a ceasefire with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; Erdoğan was optimistic that a peace "satisfying both sides" was possible with Turkish mediation.

What has been missing from the peace negotiations so far is neither Russia's willingness to talk nor the willingness of the global South – which includes the SCO and its partner states – to mediate between the two sides. What has been missing is the West's willingness to accept Ukraine's neutrality, because with this, the Euro-Atlantic expansion that Putin criticized in Astana would come to an end in Eastern Europe. As long as the United States and the countries of Western Europe insist on their expansion, the global South and the SCO countries can do whatever they want; as long as that is the case, peace in Ukraine is not in sight. As soon as the West is willing to recognize an end to its accustomed omnipotence, the global South – as was clearly evident in Astana – will be ready to engage in what would then be promising mediation efforts.