In her speech at the 77th UN General Assembly in New York Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made an impassioned appeal to immediately end the Russia-Ukraine war. In her forceful argument she said the war and the consequent sanctions and counter-sanctions are punishing the people of the lower-and-middle-income countries rather than the perpetrators. In reiterating the call for a negotiated settlement of the Ukraine conflict the Bangladesh leader said war is devastating for mankind, especially the women and children. In case of the Ukraine war that entered the 8th month there won’t be any winner. But the losers will be the world’s poor countries which are trying to recover from the damages caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Without naming the US-led NATO the prime minister hugely indicated that the member countries of the organization, primarily the United States, are profiting from the war as it has set off an arms race. The sanctions the US and its Western allies have imposed against Russia for invading Ukraine are impacting the LDCs and the developing countries. This has led the prices of food and fuel to skyrocket and the poor countries are bearing the brunt as it has disrupted the supply chain too. In this backdrop the prime minister’s call for an end of the war cannot be more appropriate and timely.
Bangladesh, one of the fastest growing economies in Asia, has sound reasons to speak strongly against the war. However, Bangladesh government’s perspective about the conflict differs from the perspective of the West. Many people in Bangladesh support the government’s position. To the West there is only one aggressor in this war and that is Russia and one victim in the form of Ukraine. The West does not agree to the other view that President Putin was provoked to send his troops to Ukraine. The invasion came more out of fear of the NATO deployment in Ukraine, a problematic neighbor of Moscow. NATO, which should have lost its relevance after the end of the Cold War started its provocation long before the Russian invasion of its neighbor. Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Lithuania already have NATO deployments as the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Russia reacted as it found itself encircled by NATO without any real provocation from Moscow. The 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea is said to have alarmed the US-led NATO. To some international analysts, however, the Crimea crisis should not have encouraged the US and its allies to provoke Putin as hard they did.
Should Putin have fallen into the trap of the West? Could he have done something differently? Moscow is currently hearing calls from its allies like China and India for resolving the conflict through diplomacy. They are urging Moscow to sit at the negotiating table with Ukraine for an end to the war. While President Putin, under counterattack from Ukraine, seems to be willing to sit across the table, his Ukrainian counterpart has apparently hardened its position. It’s clear now that President Zelensky is now behaving more like a puppet of the West which seems to be determined to teach Putin a hard lesson. As Moscow retreated from some of the occupied territories in the face of Ukraine onslaught the West seems be reading it as a defeat of Moscow. That Putin has gone for mobilization of war-age Russians to boost its forces fighting on the front prompting resentment and reported exodus of the reluctance is being interpreted by the West as real big trouble for Putin. Apparently it seems so. But since the world outside gets news about the world absolutely from the Western media it is a bit difficult to get a real picture on the ground.
Whatever may be the situation the countries like Bangladesh desperately need is an immediate end to the war. As the Bangladesh premier warned any prolonging of the conflict will have more devastating impact in the forms of food and fuel crisis and possible famine in parts of the world.
Now is the time to stop the war and the arms race.
