U.S. and Europe Struggle to Win Support for Ukraine From Wary Developing Countries
Eighteen months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Western countries still haven’t swung the developing world behind supporting Kyiv. Europe, Ukraine and the U.S. have successfully orchestrated several United Nations votes condemning Russia’s invasion.
In recent months they have started talks with dozens of other countries on what a fair peace settlement for Ukraine might look like. However, many of the biggest emerging economies—including India, Brazil and South Africa—remain neutral on the war. At next week’s gathering of world leaders at the U.N.
General Assembly, developing countries appear eager to shift the global focus onto their priorities: global inequality and debt relief. Russia hasn’t benefited significantly from the West’s difficulties. Moscow remains marginalized from many international forums and its declared annexations of Ukraine have been recognized by only a few countries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who stayed away from this month’s Group of 20 meeting and a Brics summit last month for fear of being arrested on war-crimes charges, hasn’t left his country this year. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in contrast, will be in New York and will participate in a Security Council debate on the war next Wednesday, his latest trip abroad. Yet, with the war threatening to descend into a bloody stalemate and the economic spillovers of the conflict still afflicting developing countries, Western efforts to craft an international consensus on peace terms that would benefit Ukraine have made only incremental progress.
“I don’t think this is a situation where you have easy wins and easy losses," said Richard Gowan, U.N. director at Crisis Group, an international conflict-prevention organization. “A lot
. Read more on livemint.com
