Stephen Sefton, August 17th 2025
Among the various false beliefs that characterize the demented foreign policy of the collective West, perhaps the most fundamental is to think that the West remains the global center of international relations. Based on this false fundamental assumption, the Western ruling classes interpret any independent initiative by the majority world as a threat to their own, already outdated pre-eminence. For their part, the governments of countries of the majority world participating in initiatives such as the BRICS+ group or the Shanghai Cooperation Organization always insist that their initiatives are in no way aimed at harming the interests of third countries.
On the other hand, under various false alibis such as defense or stability, the leaders of the collective West promote policies explicitly designed to harm Russia and China. The planned expansion of NATO to the East Asian region is an attempt to reinforce the absurd but sinister Western policy of "containing" the People's Republic of China. At the end of this month and the beginning of next, there will be three events which will definitively confirm the political-economic decline of the collective West and the pre-eminence of the huge Eurasian region as the global center of international relations, as it was for centuries before the establishment of European imperialism.
On August 31st and September 1st, the 25th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will be held in the great port city of Tianjin, adjacent to the Chinese capital, Beijing. On September 3rd, representatives of many countries of the majority world will arrive in China to commemorate and celebrate the 80th anniversary of the signing of the surrender by the Japanese empire to China in 1945. And between September 3rd and 6th in the city of Vladivostok, in the far east of Russia, the Tenth Eastern International Economic Forum is going to be held.
In the current context of NATO’s categorical defeat in Ukraine and the failure of US trade policy to intimidate China, India and Brazil, it is difficult to overstate the importance of this set of events. Each one, in a different way, signifies and demonstrates the defeat of imperialist fascism, the autonomy of sovereign decision making of the majority world’s largest countries and their full independence from Western interests and influence. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization comprises Belarus, China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and almost all the countries of Central Asia. It covers 25% of the world's territory with more than 40% of the planet's population and, measured in purchasing power, produces 36% of the world's GDP.
In July last year at the SCO summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, President Vladimir Putin called for "a new architecture of cooperation, indivisible security and development in Eurasia, designed to replace the outdated Eurocentric and Euro-Atlantic models, which granted unilateral advantages only to certain states." For his part, at the same summit, President Xi Jinping warned against “the Cold War mentality of the West” and commented, "The members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization should consolidate unity and jointly oppose external interference in the face of very real challenges of interference and division."
International events since last year have confirmed the relevance of these comments by the leaders of Russia and China. Examples of the US government's counterproductive interference in the region include the recent conflicts between India and Pakistan and between Cambodia and Thailand, US military support to the rebellious Chinese province of Taiwan and to provocations by the Philippines in the South China Sea. Japan and South Korea continue to accept significant US military forces in their countries and organize military exercises highly threatening for China and, especially, on the borders of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
However, while the Western powers remain stuck in their historic regional posture of threats, provocations and harassment, the countries of the Eurasian region make progress with the progressive development of their physical and economic integration. In the case of India, the recent abrupt increase in tariffs on its exports to the US market, as in the case of Brazil, have given greater incentive to diversification of economic activity to other countries. India has maintained its imports of Russian oil, is exploring how to accelerate the development of its investment in the Iranian port of Chabahar, and also more infrastructure investment with financing from the United Arab Emirates, another member of the BRICS+ group.
Also, with finance from the New Development Bank of the BRICS+ Group, the government of India is investing in renewable energy sources to increase the country's energy independence. As several observers have noted, more than non-alignment, the priority for India is economic stability and strategic autonomy, which come through greater mutually beneficial integration with its Eurasian neighbors. This logic also prevails in the advancement of other important initiatives for the development of the region. For example, the cooperation mechanism on the Lancang-Mekong River which coordinates regional economic activity among six countries around that vital natural resource.
The river originates in the northwestern part of China and crosses China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It is of fundamental importance for the regional economy and this year the cooperation mechanism celebrates ten years of its implementation. The mechanism continues to deepen trade connectivity, transport infrastructure, the development of industrial and supply chains, and educational, scientific and cultural exchanges. The Chinese Foreign Ministry commented on the anniversary of the mechanism "Faced with a volatile international landscape and the rise of unilateralism, hegemony and protectionism, the Lancang-Mekong countries need to strengthen unity, enhance cooperation and promote common development.”
Another example of the development of regional cooperation is the signing last month of an agreement to advance the railway project between Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. This project will open another overland connection between Central Asia and the Arabian Sea joining the China Pakistan Economic Corridor and the North-South International Transport Corridor. The project consolidates previous agreements and will help stabilize Afghanistan's economy helping to overcome the aftermath of forty years of war and twenty years of foreign occupation. The railway will be 648km long and will take five years to build at a cost of US$6 billion. It will reduce by up to 40% the transportation costs between Central Asia and ports on the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.
This advance in Eurasian connectivity goes hand in hand with the development of the Central Asian countries’ economic relations with China and Russia. Russia and China support the railway project linking Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan while also supporting another ambitious railway line to connect Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and China. In addition, the railway connection between the city of Xian in central China and Tehran, the capital city of Iran, crossing through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, has already been tested. This route has cut the cargo transit time between Iran and China in half, from more than 30 days by sea, to only 15 days by land.
So, gradually, the countries of the Eurasian region are re-establishing with modern technology the historic connections of the Great Silk Road which dominated international trade before the age of maritime dominance of European powers, such as Portugal, Holland and England. Along with the recovery of the historic commercial connectivity of the Eurasian region, new modalities of financial exchange are being developed, of interconnection bewteen the traditional economy and the digital economy, of forensic cooperation against drug trafficking and terrorism, and of educational, technological and cultural exchanges. This process of constant cooperation and dialogue between civilizations, based on relations of respect and equality, complements the increasing consolidation of the economic independence of the region focused on the human development of its peoples
In this regional and international context, the 25th Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the 10th Eastern International Economic Forum will mark an undeniable turning point in international relations. The Eurasian region once again assumes its natural central position in the global economy due to its territorial extension, its population, its natural resources, its productive and commercial capacity and the legacy of its age-old civilizations. Eurasian development offers valuable guidelines for other regions such as Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean in relation to unity, connectivity, dialogue and consistency of approach in human development. Its importance is reflected in the attendance by governments of more than 20 countries and 10 international organizations at the summit in Tianjin and by more than 60 countries to the international economic forum in Vladivostok.
It is especially significant that these momentous events coincide this year with the commemoration and celebration of the 80th anniversary of the signing of the surrender of the Japanese empire to China in 1945 after 14 years of ruthless war marked by terrible crimes against humanity on the part of the Empire of Japan. China is concerned about historical revisionism on the part of the Japanese authorities in the same way that Russia rejects revisionism by the collective West of the defeat of fascism in Europe. In China what is known as the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression began in 1931 and ended in 1945 as part of the Anti-Fascist World War.
As in the case of the Soviet Union in its struggle against Nazi Germany, in China, of the more than thirty million people who lost their lives at the hands of the Japanese invaders, the vast majority were civilians. The Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of China, Wang Yi, has commented on the supreme importance of this issue in relation to Japan when he said, "Only by facing history squarely can one earn respect; only by learning from history can one explore a better future; only by remembering the past can one avoid straying down the wrong path again."
Now, Japan, along with South Korea and the Philippines as well, is facing the reality that its Western allies are losing power and influence in the world, while the Eurasian region assumes indisputable economic and political-military leadership. This reality is a question of civilizational evolution which President Vladimir Putin has summed up by saying, “There are some people who consider it an attempt by the People's Republic of China to put others under its control, but we see just the opposite, we see only a desire for cooperation. Our own ideas on the development of the Eurasian Economic Union, for example, on the construction of a Greater Eurasia, fully coincide with the Chinese ideas proposed within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. "
In the same way, our Copresident Comandante Daniel explained in December 2023, how China supports “the joint construction of high-quality cooperation in the Belt and Road Initiative, and China welcomes Nicaragua's active synergy in this regard... China is also willing to strengthen Solidarity and coordination with Nicaragua in international affairs, work with Nicaragua to oppose hegemonism and the policy of force, promote the development of a more just and rational International Order, and safeguard the legitimate Rights and Interests of Developing Countries... China is already developing at a speed that has the Imperialists of the Earth trembling, not because China is going to make war on anyone, there is no Country, not in Asia, not in Africa, not in Latin America, where China has launched even a firecracker; only Cooperation, Solidarity, in the fight against Poverty, for the Well-being of Peoples.”