Security officials from 104 countries discussed prospects for creating  new global security architecture in Moscow

 

 At the end of May the 13^th international meeting of high representatives in charge of security issues was held in Moscow at the National Center “Russia”. The event was attended by 124 high-level delegations from 104 countries that are members of BRICS, SCO, CIS, CSTO, ASEAN, the League of Arab States, the African Union and other international organizations. The forum was also attended by 13 secretaries general and representatives of the leadership of international organizations, including SCO Secretary General Nurlan Ermekbayev. Among the delegates at the meeting were representatives of countries unfriendly to Russia, in particular the United States, South Korea and Singapore.

The main topic of the meeting was “Formation of architecture of equal and indivisible security: challenges and opportunities for the states of the global South and East”. In his greeting to the forum participants, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that it is necessary to make the Eurasian continent “a space of peace and stability, an example of sustainable economic, social and cultural development”. “We believe that the basis for creating such a universal security system could be the existing and well-proven multilateral interaction formats, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and others,” the Russian leader noted.

The fact that numerous representatives of the countries of the Global South and East attended the forum shows that the voice of these countries is becoming increasingly louder when discussing key issues of the modern world. This fact reflects a truly tectonic shift that has occurred in international politics. This is, first of all, the acceleration of the process of forming a multipolar world order, the process of redistribution of the balance of power in favor of new development centers on the Eurasian continent, in Africa, and Latin America. “The high level of participants and the number of countries represented clearly demonstrated the relevance and demand for holding such events, and once again dispelled the myth of Russia’s isolation,” Secretary of the Security Council of Russia Sergei Shoigu emphasized in his speech at the forum.

As follows from the speeches of Russian representatives at the forum, Moscow is striving to create a multipolar world order, which the West opposes. For example, in his speech at the meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said: “In America and especially in Europe, there are still many who see multipolarity not as a benefit, but as a challenge and even a threat. A threat to the notorious order based on rules that the West is trying to establish after the end of the Cold War in their selfish interests. We cannot agree with such interpretations – they do not reflect the real state of affairs”.

It is necessary to say that the forum held in Moscow has no analogues. If we take the Munich Security Conference, it, in essence, has an intellectually closed nature: its participants are bound by a common ideological narrative and seek ways to deny the multipolar reality and reverse the transformation of the world – to a “unipolar moment”. For this reason, the Moscow forum can be called “Anti-Munich”, since its goals, on the contrary, are the creation of a multipolar world order.

By the way President Putin repeated this thesis in his speech at the recent St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, speaking about the strategic partnership between Moscow and Beijing, stating: “… Russia and China are not forming a new world order, we are only formalizing it. The new world order arises naturally, it is like the sunrise, there is no escape from it, and we are formalizing it and, perhaps, clearing the way for this process so that it is more balanced and meets the interests of the overwhelming majority of countries.”

Then the head of Russian diplomacy mentioned the agreement with the Chinese side to start a dialogue on security in Eurasia, the possible structure of which had already been discussed during the visit. The very fact that the idea of ​​the Russian president appeared on the agenda of negotiations between two major world powers suggests that it may acquire specific outlines both at the level of political theory and at the level of practice. The conceptualization of the idea of ​​Eurasian security inevitably raises the question of other projects in this area. During his visit to Beijing, Sergey Lavrov directly linked the need for a new structure with the problems of Euro-Atlantic security built around NATO and the OSCE.

Of course, the beginning of consultations between Moscow and Beijing on the new security structure in Eurasia does not yet indicate the creation of a military-political alliance similar to NATO. Most likely, we will see a long process of maturing the contours and parameters of a new structure in the Eurasian space. Initially, it may well exist in the form of a forum or a consultative mechanism of interested countries, not burdened with excessive organizational and institutional obligations. Then, individual interaction formats can be tested within the framework of specific security issues, including, for example, security in the digital environment. Here, the potential of existing institutions and organizations, such as the SCO, can be used.

It should be noted that Moscow and Beijing are currently in a state of rivalry and competition with Washington, although in the case of Russia they have actually entered an open phase, while in the case of China they have not yet fully manifested themselves. However, the idea of ​​jointly countering the dual containment of the United States finds support in the capitals of both states. At the same time, building a security structure in Eurasia solely on countering America narrows the possible inclusiveness of the project. A number of states on the Eurasian continent (for example, the Central Asian republics) rely on a multi-vector policy and are unlikely to be ready to participate in a structure aimed at rivalry with the United States.

It is necessary to emphasize that security on the Eurasian continent is a set of programs and strategies of countries and intergovernmental associations aimed at achieving stability in the region. Key components of Eurasian security include issues of ensuring geopolitical stability, economic development, energy security, and cultural interaction.

There are still many questions regarding the parameters of the security structure in Eurasia. They need to be addressed both at the diplomatic level and at the level of dialogue between international experts from interested countries. An important question will be the functional focus of the new structure. NATO, we recall, emerged as an instrument for containing the USSR, and today it has received a new life, solving the problems of containing Russia. It is possible that the new structure of Eurasian security can also be tailored to containment tasks. The accumulated experience can then be transformed into permanent institutions focused on a wider range of security issues on the Eurasian continent.

In this regard the forum of high representatives in charge of security issues which took place in Moscow in May could become the first step in this direction.

Sergey Saenko, International observer

A source