24 May 2023 12:02 am
On Sunday - May 21, 2023 - the G7 countries comprising the US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada (All member states of NATO) plus Japan concluded their annual summit in Hiroshima Japan.
The group, all former colonial powers with the exception of Canada, at the end of their ‘summit’, came out swinging like cowboys in a ‘B’ Grade American movie of the US ‘Wild West’.
The G7 also took a swipe at Russia by inviting Ukraine’s leader to the summit.
As though they still ruled the waves and waived the rules, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claimed China posed the greatest challenge of our age, to global security and prosperity. He added China was “increasingly authoritarian at home and abroad”.
What exactly is the global security and prosperity Sunak is referring to? We cannot but remember the British and the French bombing Libya and their role in the toppling of Libyan ruler Muammar al-Ghaddafi.
At the time Libya was one of the Middle East’s most developed states. According to the Borgen Project, during the Ghaddafi era, education was compulsory but completely free of charge. The government-funded studying abroad if certain educational programmes could not be accessed within the country. Students in tertiary, or higher education programmes were widely accessible in Libya.
Libya’s citizens enjoyed unparalleled access to education and the literacy rate rose from 25% to 87%. Since the British and French intervention toppled the Libyan regime, the country has been turned into a failed State with no functioning government.
According to a CNN report, Libya’s oil sector is in disarray, with little clarity on who really is in control of the nation’s most valuable resource. The report adds Western States are trying to regain a foothold.
Similarly, in March 2003 the US invaded Iraq on a blatantly false charge that Iraq possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, which were a threat to the US. In the aftermath of the US invasion, according to a ‘Brown University’ report, there have been between 280,771 and 315,190 Iraqi civilians killed by direct violence.
A report by the United Nations University reveals that Iraqi schools and universities were bombed and destroyed under occupation. The National Institute for Health estimated 12 health facilities were bombed, stormed, or attacked by American forces and suicide bombers. The US withdrew from Iraq in 2011. But Iraq is still in turmoil with numerous armed/religious groups fighting each other to control the country.
Is this the security Sunak wants to protect? The aforementioned CNN report gives the G7/NATO game away. The aim of the interventions was to ‘regain control of the resources of that country.
NATO’s plan to weaken Russia by drawing Ukraine into the NATO fold and sanctioning the sale of Russian oil and gas backfired badly. Russia’s sales of petroleum products have reached new heights. China has increased purchases. Even US allies, India and Saudi Arabia have increased purchases of the Russian resource.
The Russian economy has not only withstood sanctions, today Russia, China and India have stopped using the US dollar as a currency of exchange with each other.
In its report on May 22, BBC emphasized, for the G7 China will prove more difficult, as via trade their economies have become inextricably dependent on China. However, the G7 is attempting to use Taiwan as a pawn in their conflict with China, as Ukraine became the NATO cat’s-paw in its confrontation with Russia.
The present rulers of Japan seem to have forgotten the US used their country and people as guinea pigs to live test nuclear weapons during the final days of World War II. The G7 is pushing Japan into a confrontation with China over the status of Taiwan and numerous disputed islands in the Pacific.
The US also continues to attempt to draw India too into the imbroglio. Fortunately, India has opted for a nonaligned stance and has emphatically stated that China and India are capable of sorting out differences.
President Wickremesinghe put the issue in perspective in his dissertation at the anniversary celebration of the BMICH saying, “...we should continue to maintain the unity in Asia...”. He added “Only the countries of the Indian Ocean have not experienced disharmony in the global power struggle.
“With the ambition of becoming world powers, some groups have undermined the unity between the countries of the Pacific Ocean and dragged them into a state of war. We must work together to prevent this from happening to the Indian Ocean”.