Damascus-SANA
If we ask how Russia was able to break the isolation that Europe tried to impose in several forms against the background of the military operation to protect Donbass, we find the answer in what Russian officials speak with high confidence about partners they describe as “many”;
Who are these partners and why Russia is turning to them;
Russia, which relied on a foreign policy of strategic depth aimed at creating partners who agree with it on the principle of mutual national, economic and security interests, was able to prove with its partners that global balance is dependent on multipolarity, not unipolar hegemony.
This was reiterated yesterday by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who confirmed: “We have many partners all over the world, such as China, India, the countries of the Middle East and Africa, and the era of the West that imposes its dictates and ignores the sovereign rights of other countries is over.”
Economic partnerships with the countries of the world have taken a major priority in Russia’s foreign policy, including the countries of Asia, where Russia has turned to the second largest economy in the world, China, to build with it a strategic partnership aimed at achieving balance against the “malign influence” of the United States in the world, according to what the Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed And Chinese Xi Jinping in early February, during Putin's visit to Beijing.
The announcement of the Sino-Russian partnership during the summit held on the same visit represents the beginning of a new era in international relations in which the two parties agree politically on the need to put an end to American hegemony over the international system, adhere to the principle of “one and indivisible security” and oppose the expansion of NATO, which is undertaking this Cold War policy in conjunction with An economic agreement to create a broad gas and oil partnership estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars to supply 100 million tons of crude oil through Kazakhstan over ten years and 10 billion cubic meters annually with a total of 48 billion cubic meters of supply through the Siberian Gas Pipeline launched in 2019.
Russia also turned to the giant economy in Asia, “India” and worked to strengthen relations with it. During President Putin’s visit to New Delhi in December last year and his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it became clear that defense technical cooperation represents the cornerstone of the strategic partnership between the two countries. Considering that peace, stability and mutual development require extensive joint work between the two countries in the most modern and advanced sectors of defense technologies.
With the Russian economic expansion globally, Moscow has worked to consolidate its relations with the countries of the Middle East region of great strategic importance through strong and solid relations with these countries based on mutual common interests, including Syria, which has rooted historical relations with Russia and bilateral cooperation, especially in economic and military projects.
The distinguished economic and political relations between Syria and Russia rose to the level of strategic alliance relations after the start of the terrorist war on Syria in 2011. Russia stood by Syria and provided it with various forms of political, military and economic support.
With the launch of the special military operation carried out by the Russian Federation to protect the civilian population in the Donbass region, Syria did not hesitate to confirm its position in support of Russia, considering what is happening to correct history and restore balance to the world that it lost after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, in the face of NATO expansion after it became a comprehensive danger It has turned into a tool to achieve the irresponsible policies of Western countries to undermine stability in the world.
In a telephone conversation that President Bashar al-Assad had with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the second day of the operation, President al-Assad affirmed that Western countries bear responsibility for chaos and bloodshed as a result of their policies aimed at controlling peoples, as these countries use their dirty methods to support terrorists in Syria and the Nazis in Ukraine and in different places of the world.
The black continent was also not outside the circle of Russia’s geopolitical interest, so it sought to expand relations with African countries and translated this in the last Russian-African summit in 2019, which constituted a new important turning point towards re-establishing Russian relations with Africa and developing Russian-African cooperation politically, security, economically, scientifically and culturally. The agreements, memoranda and contracts that were signed at the summit more than 50 documents, and the total financial volume of the documents amounted to about 800 billion rubles, or about 12.5 billion dollars. Today, Russia is influential in the most important countries of the African continent, from the Red Sea in the east to the Mediterranean in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by virtue of what It had economic investment opportunities in the fields of energy, minerals and others.
Latin America was also a destination in Russia's strategic compass to achieve Russian economic partnerships, as Moscow sought to strengthen its political, military and economic relations with these countries due to the geostrategic importance of the Latin American region.
Figures indicate that during the period from 2006 to 2016, Russia's trade with Latin America increased by 44 percent to reach $12 billion. Russian investments in Latin America were clearly concentrated in the oil and gas sectors.
Mohammed Al-Jassem
