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Speaking at an event titled The Geopolitics of Peace, hosted by Michael von der Schulenburg, renowned economist and author, Jeffrey Sachs addressed a full audience at an event in the European Parliament, criticising US global influence and Europe’s reliance on it. Sachs warned, “To be an enemy of the United States is dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal.” He called for Europe to adopt a foreign policy based on realism and independence, saying it should recognise Russia’s position, Europe’s interests, and the true nature of US power.
Michael von der Schulenburg is a former UN Assistant Secretary-General and now a Member of the European Parliament, and one of the few in the Parliament to call for an end to the Ukraine war.
In his speech, professor Jeffrey Sachs argued that the US foreign policy has been a primary driver of global conflict and instability. The renowned economist and sustainable development expert didn’t mince words, asserting that the U.S., emboldened by the collapse of the Soviet Union, has pursued a unilateralist agenda, disregarding international norms and the security concerns of other nations.
Sachs, who has advised governments worldwide and possesses deep knowledge of international affairs, painted a grim picture of a U.S. that sees itself as the sole arbiter of global order. “The United States came to the view, especially in 1990-91 and then with the end of the Soviet Union, that the US now ran the world and that the US did not have to heed anybody’s views, red lines, concerns, security viewpoints, or any international obligations or any UN framework,” Sachs stated plainly.
He further asserted that this unilateralist approach has manifested in a relentless expansion of NATO eastward, despite assurances given to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that the alliance would not move “one inch eastward.” Sachs highlighted the words of Hans-Dietrich Genscher and James Baker III, who spoke with Gorbachev on February 7, 1991. “Genscher gave a press conference afterwards where he explained NATO will not move eastward, we will not take advantage of the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact,” he stated. Sachs backed his claims by encouraging listeners to visit the National Security Archive of George Washington University and the website “What Gorbachev Heard About NATO.”
”NATO enlargement, as you know, started in 1999 with Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Russia was extremely unhappy about it, but these were countries still far from Russia’s border. Russia protested, but, of course, to no avail,” Sachs explained. ”After 1999, the next round of NATO enlargement came in 2004 with seven more countries: the three Baltic states, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, and Slovakia. At this point, Russia was pretty upset. This second-wave of NATO enlargement was a complete violation of the post-war order agreed at the time of German reunification. Essentially, it was a fundamental trick, or defection, of the US from a cooperative arrangement with Russia.”
Professor Jeffrey Sachs has been a critic of the Ukraine war since the beginning and has seen it as a proxy war between the United States and Russia, which started much earlier than the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
”As you know, Viktor Yanukovych was elected as President of Ukraine in 2010 on the platform of Ukraine’s neutrality. Russia had no territorial interests or designs in Ukraine at all. I know. I was there off and on during these years. What Russia was negotiating during 2010 was a 25-year lease to 2042 for the Sevastopol naval base. That’s it. There were no Russian demands for Crimea or for the Donbas. Nothing like that at all. The idea that Putin is reconstructing the Russian empire is childish propaganda.”
”So, there were no territorial demands at all before the 2014 coup. Yet the United States decided that Yanukovych must be overthrown because he favoured neutrality and opposed NATO enlargement. It’s called a regime change operation.
There have been around one hundred regime-change operations by the US since 1947, many in your countries [speaking to the MEPs] and many all over the world.(*16) That’s what the CIA does for a living. Please know it. It’s a very unusual kind of foreign policy. In the American Government, if you don’t like the other side, you don’t negotiate with them; you try to overthrow them, preferably covertly. If it doesn’t work covertly, you do it overtly. You always say it’s not our fault. They’re the aggressor. They’re the other side.”
Sachs then went on to tell his firsthand witness account of the Maidan regime change operation: ”When the Maidan occurred, I was called soon after. “Professor Sachs, the new Ukrainian prime minister would like to see you to talk about the economic crisis.” So, I flew to Kyiv, and I was walked around the Maidan. And I was told how the US paid the money for all the people around the Maidan, the “spontaneous” revolution of dignity.”
”At the end of 2021, Putin put on the table a last effort to reach a modus operandi with the US, in two security agreement drafts, one with Europe and one with the United States. He put the Russia-US draft agreement on the table on December 15, 2021.
Following that, I had an hour-long call with [National Security Advisor] Jake Sullivan in the White House, begging, “Jake, avoid the war. You can avoid the war. All the US has to do is say, ‘NATO will not enlarge to Ukraine.’” And he said to me, “Oh, NATO’s not going to enlarge to Ukraine. Don’t worry about it.”
I said, “Jake, say it publicly.” “No. No. No. We can’t say it publicly.”
”Come on, ladies and gentlemen. Please understand something basic. The idea of Russia’s invasion was to keep NATO out of Ukraine. And what is NATO, really? It is the US military, with its missiles, its CIA deployments, and all the rest. Russia’s goal was to keep the US away from its border. Why is Russia so interested in this? Consider if China or Russia decided to have a military base on the Rio Grande or in the Canadian border, not only would the United States freak out; we’d have war within about ten minutes. When the Soviet Union tried this in Cuba in 1962, the world nearly ended in nuclear Armageddon.”
Sachs reminded the audience that a peace deal was on the table shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but was prevented by the US and UK: ”Why did Ukraine walk away from the negotiations? Because the United States told them to and because the UK added icing to the cake by having BoJo [Boris Johnson] go to Kyiv in early April to Ukraine to make the same point. Keir Starmer turns out to be even worse, even more of a warmonger. It’s unimaginable, but it is true. Boris Johnson explained, and you can find it on the web, that what’s at stake here is nothing less than Western hegemony!”
Sachs emphasised the importance of an independent Europe with its own foreign policy and direct involvement with Russia: I think that there are tremendously important issues for Europe to negotiate directly with Russia. …The most important thing is to stop the yelling, stop the warmongering, and discuss with the Russian counterparts. And don’t beg to be at the table with the United States. You don’t need to be in the room with the United States. You’re Europe. You should be in the room with Europe and Russia. Don’t hand over your foreign policy to anybody, not to the United States, not to Ukraine, not to Israel. Keep a European foreign policy. This is the basic idea.”
In response to an audience question that if he thought the way out of this conflict is a Finlandization of Ukraine? Sachs answered: ”Let me just report one aspect about Finlandization. Finlandization landed Finland number one in the World Happiness Report year after year. Finland is rich, successful, happy, and secure. That’s pre-NATO Finland I’m discussing. So “Finlandization” was a wonderful thing for Finland. When Sweden, Finland, and Austria were neutral, bravo. Smart. When Ukraine was neutral, smart. If you have two superpowers, keep them apart a little bit. If the United States had any sense at all, it would have left these countries as the neutral space in between the US military and Russia, but the US has far too little sense.”
The full vido of the event can be viewed here.
HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
