China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and other nations have agreed to deliver a message in support of the United Nations founding treaty, which seeks multilateralism and diplomacy over the use of force against alleged violations by other UN member states. to promote.
The coalition, made up of 17 signatories who called themselves ‘the group of friends for the defense of the United Nations Charter’, called Algeria, Angola, Belarus, Bolivia, Cambodia, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Laos, Nicaragua, North Korea, Russia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Syria, Venezuela and the State of Palestine, a non-member acting state of the UN.
Their draft note of 10 March, obtained by Newsweek, said the group “will strive to preserve, promote and defend the appearance and validity of the UN Charter.”
The group said the charter, first signed in the last months of World War II, “has a renewed and even more important value and relevance, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.” provides a platform for, inter alia, promoting the legitimacy of the use of force and for discussing and coordinating possible joint initiatives to promote respect for the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. “
Among these principles are ‘non-interference in the domestic affairs of states, peaceful settlement of disputes and refraining from the use or threat of the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of a state, as contained in the UN -handves. “
The group said it would also more broadly defend the values of dialogue, tolerance and solidarity, taking into account the fact that it is all at the core of international relations and essential to peaceful coexistence between countries. ‘
LAURA BONILLA CAL / AFP / Getty Images
The note was included in a letter addressed to ambassadors from prospective countries interested in joining the group, which was first established two years ago. It requested that the answer be given by 9 April this year.
It describes the format of the group of friends as an ‘outspoken nature’ and consequently its composition will be regularly updated as Member States, observers and UN entities indicate their willingness and interest in it, subject to approval. of its membership. “
Meetings must be held at least every three months at permanent representative level, with the possibility that extraordinary meetings may be held on specific matters at the request of members. The foreign ministers of member states will also work together on the side of the annual UN General Assembly in New York.
One country will serve as co-ordinator for a term of one year, after which the post will be transferred on the basis of ‘the principle of geographical rotation’.
The initial founding of the Group of Friend in February 2019 came shortly after the US and a number of allies and partners supported Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó’s claim to the presidency, in defiance of President Nicolás Maduro , who is accused of drafting his latest victory at the ballot.
Former President Donald Trump has launched a “maximum pressure” campaign to oust the socialist leader, but he retains his positions at home as well as at the UN
Trump’s successor, President Joe Biden, has sought a more multilateral approach to state capture, but he has maintained the sanctions already imposed on Venezuela, as well as against Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and other countries that joined the 17 party group is involved. of friends.
The countries involved also fought separately against US sanctions and intervention in various statements shared by their diplomats.
Cuba’s mission on Friday was 25 years since Washington enacted the Helms-Burton Act, which extended decades-long sanctions against Cuba to foreign companies dealing with the communist island. In a Twitter statement, the mission said the law “seeks to internationalize the blockade through coercive measures against third countries to interrupt their investment and trade relations with #Cuba and subject the sovereign states to the will of the United States. “
Biden, whose wife, First Lady Jill Biden, traveled to Cuba during a heated war under former President Barack Obama, praised Trump’s tightening of restrictions on Havana or his last-minute designation of the country as a state sponsor of terrorism, not yet reversed.
Biden must also re-enter the nuclear deal reached with Iran in 2015, along with other major powers including China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom, although he has repeatedly said during his presidential campaign that he wants to do so. Its administration called on Tehran to first re-establish the nuclear enrichment suspensions suspended after the US withdrawal and non-compliance by European parties to the agreement.
Secretary Antony Blinken also said the government would pressure other countries not to thaw Iranian assets before Iran makes concessions.
‘The US claims it favors diplomacy; “Trump’s failed policy of ‘maximum pressure’,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted on Thursday, citing an article in the Wall Street Journal outlining the top US diplomat’s remarks. @SecBlinken boasts that Korea is transferring our own money to the Swiss Channel – using it only for food and medicine. “
“Repeating the same policy will not yield new results,” he added. “Only way: #CommitActMeet.”
Group of Friends in Defense of the United Nations Charter
Syrian Foreign Minister Aymen Sousan also slammed sanctions. On Wednesday, he compared the policies of the European Union and the United States to those of the militant group Islamic State (ISIS), which once took over the country and remains active despite separate campaigns to combat it by Iran and Russia on the one hand. and an American coalition on the other.
He accused the West of forcing ‘modern colonialism’ on Syria during its civil war, financial crisis and struggle with COVID-19.
Maduro spoke in Caracas on Friday and also referred to a difficult past with Western powers.
“History always teaches us what we were, where our roots come from,” the Venezuelan leader said. “It teaches us what we are today and why we are in a project to break the ideological, cultural, political and economic ties of imperial domination in this century.”
North Korea has also traditionally been critical of the sanctions imposed by the US and the international community, and Pyongyang has again instituted a more critical language of Washington since the breakdown of unprecedented peace talks launched in 2018. The speech at the sincere Korean Labor Party 8th Party Congress in January described Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un as the “country’s” main enemy “and announced that North Korea would rather” extend solidarity with the anti-imperialist, independent forces ” ‘.
Like the US, a number of governments involved in the group of friends have also been accused by the UN of human rights violations in reports they have regularly rejected as biased against them and their allies and partners.
The recent call for additional membership also comes amid renewed superpower competition between the US and its leading rivals China and Russia, which have enjoyed a tighter strategic partnership in recent years. Both Beijing and Moscow separately appealed not to intervene in their respective domestic affairs.