SCO and BRICS to counterbalance new US hawks

Hardly had Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden been announced the winner of this year's bizarre presidential election in the United States, when USA's European vassals started showing and swearing their loyalty. Washington's shaken world supremacy is once again showing signs of growth, and the West dreams of striking an all-mighty democratic blow on its Eurasian adversaries - Russia and China in the first place. The consolidation of forces within the framework of such international organizations as the SCO and BRICS could become an insurmountable frontier for those aggressive plans.

Congratulating Joe Biden and Camila Harris, French President Emmanuel Macron said: "We have a lot to do to meet the challenges of today. We will act together."

"I am delighted to work with President Biden in the future," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "Our transatlantic friendship is indispensable if our common goal is to overcome the challenges of this time."

The op-ed by German Defense Minister and the formal leader of the CDU Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer published in Politico under the eloquent headline "Europe still needs America. No matter who is in the White House, we are in this together" is quite indicative at this point.

"There is an overwhelming strategic need for strong transatlantic cooperation, both on our side in Europe, but also, I firmly believe, in Washington," Annegreta Kramp-Karrenbauer wrote.

The people around Joe Biden, who will most likely be appointed to key positions in the US presidential administration share "hawkish" attitude and lack sympathy for Russia. They are, for example, Jake Sullivan and Michael Carpenter, who call for new sectoral sanctions against the Russian economy. A possible contender for the post of the Secretary of State, Susan Rice, is willing and able to blame Russia for anything, be it protests in the United States or the deaths of American soldiers in Afghanistan. The list goes on with former Deputy Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who advocated lifting the ban on the supply of lethal weapons to Ukraine and compared Russia to a Potemkin village, as well as former Deputy Defense Minister Michèle Flournoy, a supporter of the policy of Russia's containment to create as many problems for Russia as possible.

The spirit of Shanghai brings Russia and China together

Obviously, Russia can not resist this onslaught on the East single-handedly without joining efforts with other Eurasian states that have no wish to find themselves among the powerless vassals of the United States. Fortunately, Russia is not alone in its aspiration to independency and sovereignty.

The leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization member-countries gathered for a videoconference chaired by President Vladimir Putin a few days ago. In his speech, the Russian president noted that the system of strategic stability continues to decline, that international terrorism and drug trafficking still pose a serious threat, violent conflicts spark in different regions of the world and new hotspots do not stop emerging, including in the areas within external borders of the SCO.

Putin referred to numerous attempts of direct external interference in internal affairs of SCO member-countries. Belarus, which has the observer status within the SCO, has fallen a victim to  unprecedented pressure immediately after the presidential election and faced provocations and sanctions in the midst of information war. Therefore, one of the key purposes of the SCO is to promote peaceful, political-democratic resolution of crises and prevent conflicts in hot spots.

Chinese President Xi Jinping called on to strengthen the Shanghai spirit, deepen solidarity and interaction in building the future of mankind. The world is going through the test of confrontation between multilateral and unilateral approaches, cooperation and confrontation. The Chinese leader speaks for mutually beneficial cooperation that should prevail over the logic of the zero-sum game, for multilateralism, for deeper integration of the "One Belt, One Road" initiative with national development strategies and regional integration processes.

President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called the SCO an effective tool for strengthening cooperation and trust on the area that covers a quarter of the territory of the world, forty percent of the world's population and a third of world's GDP. Due to growing security threats (terrorism, arms race, hybrid wars) and the collision of two polar trends in geoeconomy - globalism and nationalism - the leader of Kazakhstan called for the active implementation of cooperation programs within the SCO. Increased protectionism and the disruption of international supply chains make it an urgent task to unleash the economic potential of the organization. It is proposed to adopt a roadmap to gradually increase the share of national currencies in mutual settlements, create a Eurasian financial advisory mechanism, sign a program for the development of SCO roads and harmonize efforts to switch national economies to innovation tracks.

Five is stronger than seven

Many of these ideas and plans were reflected in the Moscow Declaration of the Council of leaders SCO member states from November 10, 2020. In the context of deep transformation of international relations and associated risks, the SCO appears as one of the important pillars of a new world order based on the rule of international law, equal and indivisible security, respect for civilizational diversity and sovereignty. Russia's initiative to build large Eurasian partnership was supported in order to unite the potentials of many countries and international organizations for the purpose of open, mutually beneficial and equal cooperation.

It is worthy of note that Russia served as the chairing state at another important association this year - BRICS (the organisation consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). Many agree that this group of five, being an informal international association, provides an opportunity to use this format as a platform for dialogue with the planet: the issues discussed within this organisation  relate to global processes, while agreements reached determine the direction of world development.

Immediately after the summit held in November last year in Brazil, Vladimir Putin stressed the important role of the BRICS: "This organization is a certain factor of stability not only in politics, but also in the world economy, since it advocates ideas of open markets and opposes any kind of protectionism."

Last year, BRICS outstripped G7 countries in terms of GDP per capita by 12 percent.

The BRICS Economic Partnership Strategy before 2025 has been prepared for the next summit, which touches upon such topics as:

• infrastructure investments,
• conjunction of national payment systems and digital platforms,
• stronger use of national currencies in international settlements.

Brick by brick, through the efforts of many countries, a common house is being built on the foundation of true partnership and mutual respect in counterbalance to the unipolar world order and its disrespect for the legitimate interests of others.