{"id":78220,"date":"2023-03-07T11:00:31","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T00:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=78220"},"modified":"2023-03-07T11:02:16","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T00:02:16","slug":"why-outrage-over-the-war-in-ukraine-isnt-universal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/why-outrage-over-the-war-in-ukraine-isnt-universal\/","title":{"rendered":"Why outrage over the war in Ukraine isn\u2019t\u00a0universal"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made headlines over the weekend when his claim the Ukraine war was \u2018launched against\u2019 Russia provoked\u00a0laughter<\/a>\u00a0from the audience during a forum in India.<\/p>\n

But I was in the room and can report he also received applause and indifference. Understanding why can help explain the differences in views on the war between developing countries and the West.<\/p>\n

The incident happened at the Raisina Dialogue, India\u2019s\u00a0premier geopolitics forum<\/a>\u00a0featuring more than\u00a026 foreign ministers and six current and former heads of state<\/a>. Many represented the developing countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific that have variously been called the \u2018global south\u2019 or \u2018majority world\u2019.<\/p>\n

The organisers\u2019 decision to invite Lavrov to speak was controversial. To be fair, it was counterbalanced by speakers such as former US defence secretary Jim Mattis and Australian Defence Force chief Angus Campbell, who eloquently presented the\u00a0case<\/a>\u00a0that Russia is involved in an illegal war.<\/p>\n

While pro-Ukraine parts of the audience\u00a0openly laughed<\/a>\u00a0at the claim Russia was the victim in the war, there were also those who showed support for Russia\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

On Twitter, Indians voiced opinions ranged from neutral to suspicious of the West<\/a> and\u00a0resisting<\/a>\u00a0taking sides<\/a>, given\u00a0India\u2019s longstanding links with Russia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The rest of the audience seemed simply disengaged.<\/p>\n

One of the European experts I spoke to posed the question starkly: why doesn\u2019t the global south care more about the war?<\/p>\n

Past links with Russia<\/a>\u00a0are clearly important in how countries have responded to the Ukraine war. This is most evident for India, but also for others such as Vietnam and Laos. They may have bonds of affection with Russia or more tangible links, such as a reliance on Russian arms.<\/p>\n

These three countries were among 32 that\u00a0abstained<\/a>\u00a0from voting on a resolution at the UN General Assembly last week\u2014alongside China, South Africa and others\u2014calling for an end to the war and demanding Russia leave Ukraine\u2019s territory.<\/p>\n

And some countries in the global south are repulsed by what they see as Western hypocrisy and double standards.\u00a0Lavrov received audience applause<\/a>, for example, when he criticised\u00a0the US-led invasion of Iraq<\/a>\u00a0and other Western transgressions.<\/p>\n

He also tried hard to paint the flow-on effects of the war\u2014such as the impact of the Ukraine war on grain supplies to developing countries\u2014as the\u00a0fault of the West<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These factors tend to push countries towards a pro-Russian or neutral stance.<\/p>\n

But it is vital to the international system that countries are prohibited from using force against other countries. Even if\u00a0all the things Lavrov said<\/a>\u00a0about Ukraine were factually true, it would still fall short of justifying an invasion.<\/p>\n

The fact that Western countries have broken international law\u2014such as the invasion of Iraq\u2014doesn\u2019t mean we should give up on it.<\/p>\n

For countries that are disengaged from the Ukraine war, there are other factors at play.<\/p>\n

They may see Ukraine\u2019s plight as something unique to countries with a great power as a neighbour. The reaction of such countries to Ukraine might be: \u2018It\u2019s terrible to be you. But I don\u2019t have the same concerns.\u2019<\/p>\n

There\u2019s some evidence that countries\u00a0adopting stronger positions against Russia<\/a>\u00a0tend to have a more acute sense of\u00a0vulnerability<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some developing countries may also believe that while the invasion of Ukraine is a bad thing, it\u2019s not something they can do much about. There might be a sense of fatalism that this is simply \u2018how the world is\u2019 and the global south has limited ability to change it.<\/p>\n

This plays into the most important factor in why so much of the global south is disengaged by the war\u2014it has other problems and challenges to deal with. These include equitable access to healthcare, climate adaptation, insufficient digital infrastructure, terrorism, lack of development finance, food and fuel insecurity, the debt crisis and the overriding imperative of sustainable growth.<\/p>\n

This can explain why a country like Brazil has\u00a0condemned<\/a>\u00a0the invasion but\u00a0not offered significant support<\/a>\u00a0to Ukraine.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0point was made strongly<\/a>\u00a0by India\u2019s foreign minister, S. Jaishankar, in a video clip at the start of the Raisina Dialogue: \u2018Europe has to grow out of the mindset that Europe\u2019s problems are the world\u2019s problems but the world\u2019s problems are not Europe\u2019s problems.\u2019<\/p>\n

This seemed to prompt self-reflection with some in attendance. Slovakia\u2019s foreign minister and others repeated the same point.<\/p>\n

I left the forum thinking that perhaps there\u2019s more of a role for India in building understanding than I\u2019d initially thought.<\/p>\n

Meenakashi Lekhi, the minister of state for external affairs, suggested\u00a0India can act as a bridge<\/a>\u00a0as a country of the north (geographically), south (economically), east (culturally) and west (democratically).<\/p>\n

She talked with passion from the perspective of the global south\u2014the part of the world that has been subject to imperialism and exploitation\u2014making her argument more persuasively than any global north politician could.<\/p>\n

In her view, \u2018Whenever a conflict breaks out in any part of the globe, it is going to impact an individual at a faraway distance.\u2019<\/p>\n

This is exactly what we\u2019ve seen with the invasion of Ukraine causing a spike in the cost of food, fertiliser and energy, which has been devastating for developing countries.<\/p>\n

Precisely because India cares about being a \u2018voice for the voiceless\u2019, it\u2019s more likely to be listened to in the global south.<\/p>\n

This drives home an important point that Western leaders should keep top of mind: if the West wants developing countries to care about its concerns, it needs to care about the issues that matter to the developing world. Development and defence are linked.\"The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made headlines over the weekend when his claim the Ukraine war was \u2018launched against\u2019 Russia provoked\u00a0laughter\u00a0from the audience during a forum in India. But I was in the room and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":78221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[584,69,163,1932],"class_list":["post-78220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-development","tag-india","tag-russia","tag-the-west","dinkus-russia-ukraine-war"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy outrage over the war in Ukraine isn\u2019t\u00a0universal | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/why-outrage-over-the-war-in-ukraine-isnt-universal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why outrage over the war in Ukraine isn\u2019t\u00a0universal | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made headlines over the weekend when his claim the Ukraine war was \u2018launched against\u2019 Russia provoked\u00a0laughter\u00a0from the audience during a forum in India. 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