Kazakhstan proposes a 'Eurasian UN'

​It should be yet another alternative to the multilateral institutions controlled by the West. For Russia, it is a valuable tool for its autonomy from the US and Europe. Moscow's possible exclusion from the UN Security Council could mark the end of the post-World War II balance.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - Asian countries are preparing the counterweight to the "golden billion" of the dominant Westerners, as was proclaimed with resounding declarations at last days summit in Astana of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), which wants to transform itself into an international organisation similar to the UN. The meeting in Kazakhstan had a solemn jubilee value, being the 30th of the CICA leaders, and expressed the conception of a new geopolitical unity, which wants to complement or even compete with the G20 formula.

The tone of the declarations was further reinforced by the ambitions of the host, President Kasym-Žomart Tokaev, engaged in the electoral test that on 20 November should project him as the figurehead of the 'new Asia' between Putin's warmongering Russia and Xi Jinping's neo-Confucian China. The Kazakh leader made it clear that 'we are not creating a new institution, but marking the transition to the new phase of an institutional development'. Asia is becoming aware of its increased responsibilities on the international chessboard, and the CICA foundation has also been created, to which all member countries will contribute to finance new projects in all necessary directions of economic, cultural and political development.

The CICA is a legacy of the 'eternal president' Nursultan Nazarbaev, the founder of many Eurasian cooperation initiatives, who in 1992 wanted to encourage the opening of new channels of dialogue and realisation of projects in the field of security throughout Asia. As many as 29 states officially belong to it, including Kuwait, which recently added its membership. Eight other countries and five international organisations participate as observers, including the Eurasian Economic Commission, Turkmenistan and Belarus, and the Russian-led 'Eurasian NATO', Csto, is also connected with it in some way.

Russian President Putin has called on the Csto countries to develop trade on the basis of national currencies, considering its problems with Western sanctions, expressing a desire to counter the 'golden billion', and pointing to the situation in Afghanistan as one of the Asian security priorities. Russia seeks to present itself as the guarantor of the whole of Central Asia, the field of confrontation with the Chinese giant. According to Putin, 'it is necessary to collaborate in the economic rebirth of the Afghan country', forcing the US to compensate for the damage inflicted on Kabul, and unfreezing Afghan resources 'illegally' blocked due to US faults.

On the subject of Afghanistan, Uzbek President Mirziyoyev, one of those most interested in the pacification of the region, noted that the Afghan problem is now slipping into the background of the international community's urgencies. He proposed the formation of an international negotiating table to settle all issues related to the changes in Taliban policy over the past year.

The anti-Western polemic was echoed by Moscow's staunchest ally, Belarusian President Lukashenko, who said that 'the collective West is constantly trying to destabilise the situation in the post-Soviet space, and is fuelling the foci of World War III'. Turkey's Erdogan, on the other hand, tried to uphold his line as a 'great peacemaker', calling to 'stop the bloodbath in Ukraine', because 'we see the consequences of the Ukrainian crisis regionally and globally, and a just peace can only be achieved through diplomacy'.

As the Director of Ethno-National Strategies in St. Petersburg, Aleksandr Kobrinskij, noted, 'Kazakhstan is increasingly presenting itself as a space for international mediation, at a stage when it is becoming clear to everyone that the UN is running out of steam, and perhaps heading towards its demise'. Russia's possible exclusion from the UN Security Council could indeed mark the end of the diplomatic balance that has held since the end of World War II, and future scenarios are all yet to be written.

• eurasia
• kazakhstan
• russia
• economy
• cica
• onu
• g20
• ukraine
• war
• invasion