Joint seminar between ECFA and the Belarusian side about an article by the late Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir V. Makei

On March 15, 2023, ECFA held a joint seminar with one of the Belarusian think tanks, in the presence of the Ambassador of Belarus to Cairo at ECFA’s headquarters, to discuss an article by the late Belarusian Foreign Minister, Vladimir V. Makei, about the so-called “liberal international order from a Western perspective – Liberal International Order: Can it be saved in Today’s Non–Hegemonic World?, which was published in the journal: Russia in Global Affairs, January – March 2023 issue. Ambassador Dr. Ezzat Saad, ECFA Director, Ambassador Mohamed Tewfik, Ambassador Alaa Al-Hadidi, and Dr. Mona Khalil, participated on behalf of ECFA.

According to the author, the West’s interest in this issue is mainly due to the rise of China, which is inevitable, in his opinion, and the increasingly decline of the United States. Here China is seen as a long-term threat to the liberal order and U.S. values and interests. This is versus “an authoritarian international order in the making.” But he adds that the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, Britain’s exit from the European Union, mass migration from the Middle East to Europe, and growing populism and right-wing nationalism in some Western European countries, all of this has put the future of the international liberal order in doubt.

The late author concludes that the world is a very diverse place; therefore, the international order must reflect this diversity. In this context, he proposes in his article that the United Nations formulate a charter for global diversity in the twenty-first century, so that all member states in a concerted manner are able to establish some basic principles for managing international relations in a non-hegemonic manner that respects the very diverse world, which is what the participants called for.