Mushahid sees post-WWII political order unravelling

Senator becomes first Pakistani to address official int’l BRICS forum

VLADIVOSTOK:

Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed became the first Pakistani to address the official International BRICS Forum, hosted by current Chair, Russia, at the Russian Far Eastern port of Vladivostok, close to North Korea and Japan.

The two-day forum was organised by the ruling ‘United Russia’ Party. The forum was informed that 29 countries, including Pakistan, are applicants for membership of BRICS, which now includes almost half the world’s population, contributing 30% of global GDP and 50% of global oil and gas producers amongst its members, a news release said.

Mushahid Hussain, who is currently Co-Chairman of International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP), the largest organisation of political parties of Asia, as well as heading two think tanks in Pakistan, on China and Africa, gave a keynote speech in which he expressed the hope that ‘Pakistan hopes to join BRICS as Pakistan wants to be part of the new emerging order of the Global South’, adding ‘Pakistan as a member of the UN Security Council during 2025-2026 will be a robust voice for peace, justice and the oppressed’.

Mushahid Hussain said that the ‘post World War II Western-propped global economic and political order was already unraveling and organisations like BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) would be the pillars of this emerging new global order, which will derive its strength from the United Nations Charter, international law and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, rejecting hegemony, military dictate and double standards’.

He said an expanded BRICS can make a ‘major contribution to promoting three major trends of contemporary international relations.

The first of these trends is democratisation of international relations through dialogue and inter-state relationships based on equality and rule of law. The second is demilitarisation of international relations, as the Western world order in the 21st Century is in the grip of a new Cold War hysteria, arming Israel to kill Palestinians or promotion of ‘Asian NATO’ and dedollarisation of the international financial system, with the US often using the dollar currency as a political weapon.