Paz na Ucrânia? Basta aplicar a Carta da ONU: discurso da primeira ministra da Estônia, Kaja Kallas

 A speech to learn from by Prime Minister Kaja Kallas at the opening plenary of the Summit on Peace in Ukraine.

« Principles such as sovereignty, territorial integrity and discrediting aggression as a tool of statecraft are the most important elements. They must at all costs be preserved. 

Hence, it is critical that these principles are also upheld in case of Ukraine.

That is why I am concerned to hear about so-called peace plans or initiatives that don’t even mention these core principles of the UN Charter – the principles that form the basis for securing peace globally. 

We should be very careful not to leave an impression that some topics and principles, such as especially Ukraine’s territorial integrity, are somehow secondary to others. 

They clearly are not. Upholding these principles is the most important way towards a just and lasting peace. They must be at the core of any future peace framework.

The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has lasted for ten years. For the bigger part of it, the world ignored it.  

Some hoped back then and are hoping right now that territorial concessions to the aggressor would bring peace. This logic echoes the appeasement policies of the 1930s. However, rather than securing peace, the Munich Agreement emboldened Hitler, leading to further aggression and eventually to World War II.  

History has proved that giving up territory for peace has too often led and will lead to further aggressions. To achieve peace, we will have to learn from our own mistakes – failure to do so would bring a colossal cost in human lives across the globe.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

Many countries have suffered under colonial wars. So has mine. I know that Russia isn't typically thought of as a colonial power. 

Estonia, my own country, went through Russia’s colonisation and occupation for almost half a century, up until 1991.

I grew up during the last part of that time. My own mother, forcefully deported to Siberia as a baby, has suffered from war crimes that Russia inflicted upon far too many. In theory, it was called peace, but it was peace on Russian terms – meaning mass atrocities, repressions, colonisation. 

So, witnessing the continuation of Russia’s colonialist landgrab policy today in Ukraine is a heartbreaking reminder of how history can repeat itself. I really hope this time we’re able to learn from our past mistakes. »

War in Ukraine churns Asia’s troubled waters - Ishaan Tharoor with Sammy Westfall (WP)

 O ministro da Defesa da Indonésia (um dos países citados por Lula para integrar o natimorto "Clube da Paz) é candidato à presidência do seu país. Lula já é presidente, mas quer ser o líder do assim chamado Sul Global e, se possível, estadista mundial, candidato a algum Nobel da Paz.

Paulo Roberto de Almeida

War in Ukraine churns Asia’s troubled waters

By Ishaan Tharoor
with Sammy Westfall 

The Washington Post, June 5, 2023,
The 

Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto speaks during the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday. (Caroline Chia/Reuters)

SINGAPORE — Almost since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, analysts in the West wrung their hands about a perceived lack of support for Kyiv from the global South. The explosion of open war in Europe galvanized the transatlantic alliance and ushered in a major shift in strategic thinking on the continent. But it also exposed gaps in the priorities and concerns of governments elsewhere, many of which hoped to see an immediate end to a war that had destabilized the global economy and critical food supply chains — even if it meant Ukraine making concessions to Russian aggression.

At the Shangri-La Dialogue, a leading Asian security forum hosted in this Southeast Asian city-state that concluded over the weekend, that dissonance was palpable. Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto took the dais during a Saturday plenary and put forward a peace plan to draw an end to the war in Ukraine — somewhat to the surprise of even some members of the Indonesian contingent in attendance.

Prabowo, who is gearing up for a presidential run in 2024, proposed a settlement that would usher in an immediate cessation of hostilities, compel both Russia and Ukraine to withdraw 15 kilometers from their current positions to create a demilitarized buffer zone, and lead to the staging of U.N.-backed referendums in disputed territories. He said his country would be prepared to dispatch military observers to Ukraine to help oversee such an effort.

“Let us not put blame on any side,” Prabowo said. “There are always two versions to any conflict. Both sides feel strongly of their righteousness.”

The proposal triggered a swift backlash. Josep Borrell, the E.U.’s top diplomat, sat on stage alongside the Indonesian defense minister and rejected what he described as a “peace of the cemeteries, a peace of surrender” and argued that Russian aggression ought not be rewarded by further territorial concessions. Reinhard Bütikofer, a German member of the European Parliament, suggested the offer for Indonesian intervention was a “policy stunt” intended for a domestic audience. In Singapore, Bütikofer told me, Prabowo “made a fool of himself.”

Then came Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, who at another session later in the day scoffed at Prabowo’s suggestion, describing it as “a Russian plan.” He said there was already a long “queue” of outside powers eager to help end the conflict, but that Ukraine does not “need a facilitator right now because we are still conducting war — a war with murderers, looters and rapists.” Reznikov reiterated Ukraine’s long-standing demands for more military aid to help push out Russian forces from Ukrainian territory. “We need the tools to finish this war,” he said.

In a Q&A session, Prabowo coolly advised against an overly “emotional reaction” to the current situation. He reminded the audience gathered at the forum in Singapore that Indonesia had already voted at the U.N. General Assembly to condemn the Russian invasion and that he was simply, in good faith, trying to find a way “to resolve this conflict.”

But Prabowo communicated an impatience with Western moralizing over the war in Ukraine that is keenly felt in some corners in Asia and Africa, subject to a history of Western meddling and exploitation. “There are violations of sovereignty not only in Europe. Ask our brothers in the Middle East, ask the Africans … how many countries have invaded them?” Prabowo said. “Please understand we have been victims of aggression many times.”

Sitting next to Reznikov, Cui Tiankai, a retired Chinese diplomat who recently served a lengthy stint as Beijing’s ambassador in Washington, seemed to exult in the tension. “I appreciate very much efforts from our friends in the region, like Indonesia and South Africa,” said Cui, who also highlighted China’s own halting efforts to broker a truce. “With all due respect to our Euro-Atlantic friends: I don’t think you are managing effectively your own security situation. Maybe mismanaging is a better word.”

The considerable crowd of Westerners attending the Shangri-La Dialogue seemed sensitive to this perspective. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas spoke Sunday about Ukraine’s fight as a struggle of anti-imperial resistance, rhetoric some Europeans hope resonates with audiences elsewhere. “Russia is testing us all to see whether it can get away with conquering and colonizing an independent country in the 21st century,” said Kallas, who later inaugurated her small Baltic nation’s new embassy in Singapore.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said the war in Ukraine and the reckonings it forced on the continent was a wake-up call with far-reaching implications. Europeans now recognized their vulnerability to chaos in other parts of the world, as well, and saw the need to bolster security relationships in Asia. “We have been too focused on economical relations and not enough on global political developments,” Pistorius said.

At the forum, Pistorius announced that his nation would dispatch a frigate and a supply ship to the South China Sea for freedom of navigation exercises. British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace also touted his government’s permanent deployment of two warships in the region. Such moves add to Beijing’s fears of geopolitical encirclement by the United States and its allies, but signal a degree of engagement and attention to other Asian powers that may have not existed in prior decades.

“I’ve got a powerful sense that countries in the region welcome the fact that the U.K. is very present in the region, alongside other European partners,” David Lammy, a prominent Labour Party politician and Britain’s shadow foreign secretary, told me on the sidelines of the Dialogue. “But alongside that, it’s clear that there’s no request for NATO to stretch beyond the Atlantic.”

Ukraine loomed over proceedings often as metaphor and cautionary tale. One prominent official after the next summoned the effects and costs of Russia’s invasion as something no one wants to see repeated in Asia. Mounting U.S.-China tensions and a worrying lack of substantive communication between both sides has put the region on edge.

“As many ministers have said, if you have a simultaneous war in Europe and Asia, it will be catastrophic globally,” Singapore Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen told reporters Saturday. “There was a real sincerity and urgency that what happened in Ukraine must not happen in Asia,”

Hanna Shelest, an influential foreign policy expert in Kyiv who attended the forum in Singapore, made a more direct plea. She told me that she hoped China, in particular, would understand that their current course of providing cover for the Kremlin was worth correcting. She urged Beijing to separate its views of the war in Ukraine from its broader confrontation with the United States. “Ukraine should not become hostage” to the U.S.-China dynamic, she said.