Canciller de Nicaragua: “Los BRICS rompen la lógica hegemónica impositiva del norte global”
The BRICS represent a huge opportunity to break with Western unipolarity by paving the way for the emergence of a new world order, Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Valdrack Ludwing Jaentschke Whitaker, whose country applied to join the group in April this year, told Sputnik exclusively.
“Break with hegemony and imposition”
“We are witnessing the emergence of a new world order, far removed from the hegemony and impositions to which we have been accustomed. I believe that the BRICS – in addition to representing, in economic terms, the possibility of building our economies, our countries, our development, our well-being in a much more independent manner, more aligned with our own sovereignty, independence and self-determination – also represents the breaking of the hegemonic logic that the global north, the empire of the north, has tried and is trying to impose on our countries, our peoples. The BRICS, then, emerge as a great opportunity to break with that,” stressed the head of Nicaraguan diplomacy, interviewed at the BRICS Summit, in the Russian city of Kazan.
He also highlighted the “cultural aspect” of the BRICS. “It also represents an element of cultural sovereignty, of respecting cultures, and I believe that all of these elements are present in this BRICS summit. That is why we are asking to be part of the emergence of a multipolar world, far from hegemony and imposition,” he said.
“Strategic partnership” with Russia
According to the Nicaraguan foreign minister, relations with Russia, which have “a long history,” are a high priority for the foreign policy of the Central American nation.
“This year we celebrate 80 years of our relationship, but it was after the triumph of the Sandinista popular revolution in 1979 that we intensified and expanded our relationship with the then Soviet Union. These were very difficult times for our country, in which the foreign military intervention of the United States was devastating our country, and the helping hand, the sisterly hand of the Soviet Union at that time, was at our side, was at the side of our people,” he recalled.
He noted that the leaders of both countries, Daniel Ortega and Vladimir Putin, currently characterize the bilateral relationship “as a strategic partnership.”
“We applied to be part of the BRICS precisely during the presidency of the Russian Federation because we feel that closeness. And now our relationship is characterized by a struggle between partners against this hegemonic world, against this world that wants to impose its way of seeing the world on us,” he said.
According to the Nicaraguan foreign minister, at the present stage, his country is seeking to deepen cooperation with Russia “in matters of medicine, development, knowledge, training, investment.”
“Strategic importance” of relations with China
According to Jaentschke Whitaker, China is another of Nicaragua’s key partners in its bid to diversify its international ties in a context in which Latin America and the Caribbean are a region “highly characterized by the hegemonic presence of the United States.” “We have made progress on a trade agreement, which was preceded by the Acuerdo de Cosecha Temprano. The speed, depth and breadth of that agreement with China, as well as with the Russian Federation, shows how important it is for us to break the hegemony,” he said. At the same time, the Nicaraguan foreign minister reiterated Managua’s “unequivocal position” regarding “recognizing only one China.”
“We denounce the use of the Taiwan issue as a manipulation to affect China. We are unequivocal on these issues, we have no doubt that this is the correct position, this is the fair position, this is the position that our country assumes in this relationship with our sister People’s Republic of China,” he added.
“The relationship in terms of solidarity, cooperation, unconditional participation in economic, commercial and political aspects is what characterizes our relations with these important partners in the world. And it is also an example of the emergence of this multipolar world, of this world in which this hegemony is being thrown into the dustbin of history,” the minister emphasized.
Western censorship
Asked about Western censorship of alternative voices, such as Sputnik and other media outlets, Jaentschke Whitaker insisted that it is an “aggression” that also involves “cancelling” cultures that are different from that of the “global north.”
“The great advances of academia, the great advances of world literature are not available or are not made known in this global north,” said the minister, expressing his conviction that, in this way, the Western population is excluded “from, probably, two thirds of the culture, of the literature, of the knowledge that is developed in the global south or in countries outside this global north.”
“The countries of the world are coming together at this BRICS meeting, and they in the north, in addition to censoring our media, exclude themselves from knowledge, from information,” said the Nicaraguan foreign minister, arguing that “the only way to confront these attacks is with greater solidarity, greater cooperation, greater alliance and greater exchange between our media.”
Challenges for the unity of Latin America and the Caribbean
For Valdrack Ludwing Jaentschke Whitaker, the interference of the United States, in complicity with the “allied oligarchies,” is a great challenge to the unity of Latin America and the Caribbean by trying to “impose divisions, impose fragmentation” in the region.
“CELAC, for example, has been a space vilely attacked by the external hegemony of the global north and local oligarchies. They see the possibility of our uniting as a huge problem. The truth is that we continue to face this conduct that divides our peoples. And on a daily basis this affects the possibility of the emergence of greater unity in the region,” he denounced.
“We face the challenge and the solution: we have to work so that this concept of unity of our peoples reaches the governments, and that from the governments we can continue to strengthen Latin American and Caribbean unity,” he said.
Middle East: “There is a genocide there”
On the issue of conflict in the Middle East, Jaentschke Whitaker stressed that regional peace requires the recognition of Palestine as a key condition. “We have no doubt that the stability of this region depends on the recognition of the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to an independent and sovereign state. There is no other way out of this . The Palestinian people have a right to such a state,” he said.
In this context, he condemned the “crimes committed by the State of Israel.”
“We do not hesitate to call things by their name: there is genocide there, there is a crime there, there is a neo-fascist thought that has taken hold there that affects that region and affects the world,” the minister said.
At the same time, he also blamed “the enablers of the State of Israel.” “Although the State of Israel is the one that directly commits the crimes and genocide, there are a number of financial, military, and logistical enablers that support the position of the State of Israel. Without that position, I doubt very much that there would be such a criminal and sometimes self-sufficient way for the State of Israel to believe that it can do anything in that region. So, we must also call on the enablers who are in the global north who support that position,” said the foreign minister.
“Just as we took the United States to the International Court of Justice in the 1980s and accused them of acts of terrorism against our country. And at that time the International Court of Justice condemned the United States for terrorism. We believe in that international system and we hope that this international system works,” concluded the foreign minister.
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