Short-term crises, such as inflation and last year’s spike in global food prices, have also motivated non-Western nations to unite in demanding more attention from the West. Many members are waiting for a stronger indication of the trajectory of the war before they decide how to deal with Russia and the West. There are several possible explanations for this new era of friction at the UN. And non-Western officials insist that their countries’ economic needs – and their broader conceptions of economic and social rights – require at least as much attention as Ukraine. Although these demands are not new, Western officials are suddenly listening more attentively as they aim to rally the rest of the world against Moscow. But diplomats from these regions are demanding that richer countries invest more in the developing world’s economic growth and response to climate change.
Many other Asian, African, and Latin American states have backed Ukraine. Brazil has also begun to tilt towards Russia, offering to mediate peace while blaming NATO members for fuelling the war by arming Kyiv. Yet, European representatives at the United Nations and their US counterparts have been unable to persuade big non-Western democracies, such as India and South Africa, to back Western positions over Ukraine.
After a recent trip to India, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell blogged that while he understood “in a multipolar world everyone wants to express his or her own truth,” this needs to be underpinned by “a common base of values and principles on which we agree.” From a European perspective, at least in the context of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, it seems self-evident that such a “common base” would include respect for national sovereignty and international law.
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