For no reason, Russia attacks a sovereign neighboring country, bombs its infrastructure, abducts, tortures and massacres civilians – and in the UN General Assembly 39 states do not want to agree to a resolution condemning this attack and demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. It’s not just the usual rogue states like North Korea or Syria that are resisting, but also China, India and South Africa. The good sees.
The West may be more united than ever as a result of this war: it wants to isolate Russia internationally, it has imposed sanctions on Moscow and is supplying arms to Ukraine. But in other parts of the world you see things differently. Chancellor Olaf Scholz experienced this again during his visit to India. In the same way, President Lula had undiplomatically made it clear to him in Brasilia that he would not allow himself to be taken over by the Europeans or NATO – it always takes two to make a war.
And it’s not just governments that think differently about this conflict than the West. A recent survey published by the European Council on Foreign Relations revealed astonishing assessments of the population in China, India and Turkey. Accordingly, 80 percent of Indians find that Russia is an “ally” or “partner” of their own country, 79 percent of Chinese see it the same way and 69 percent of Turks.
It is similar with the question of a peace solution. In Europe and the United States, the prevailing view is that Ukraine must regain all of its territory, even if it means a protracted war. In China, India and Turkey it is the other way round: most of those surveyed would like the war to end quickly, even if Ukraine would have to cede areas to Russia to do so.
It is not new that central issues are looked at differently in other parts of the world. But the war shows it more clearly than ever.
“Kick-off” is WELT’s daily news podcast. In the morning the most important appointments of the day classified by our experts. And in the evening, the most important topic of the day analyzed by WELT editors. Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, among others, or directly via RSS feed.
