On October 31, the parliamentarian spoke on the topic “Responding to the Challenges of a Changing World”.
The First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma stressed that the Parliamentary Forum “provides a good opportunity to expand the scope of the discussion, to include all members of delegations, to hear each other.”
“Our dialogue, our joint efforts, our common decisions often lead to positive results,” said Ivan Melnikov
Ivan Ivanovich
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In his speech, he outlined two main trends facing the world today: on the one hand, over the past 15 years the world has been moving from a unipolar system to a multipolar one, new centers of influence are being created and developed, and the birth of “Group of Twenty” is an example of it.
“On the other hand, there is a second major trend. It has been developing in recent years,” the parliamentarian continued.
“These are attempts of some states interested in a unipolar world to reverse the process of building a multipolar world order. To use any leverage for this, including unlawful methods,” said Ivan Melnikov.
“I will give the most striking and most obvious example of the experience of the Russian Federation. It is profitable for Europe to buy gas from Russia. Russia has the technological capabilities to comfortably deliver gas to Europe at an affordable price. The parties agreed and are satisfied with the cooperation,” the parliamentarian added. “Suddenly, a third party appears who declares: your cooperation is not profitable for us. Break the deal or we will impose sanctions against you! Thus, forcing Europe to buy gas at much less favorable conditions. How to evaluate this? What about the principles of competition, what about the principles of free trade?”
Moreover, according to Ivan Melnikov, not only Russia is becoming a victim of such a policy, “there are more and more new states that face the same.”
“In general, the circle of states, which are being dictated what they can buy and what they cannot, what they can sell and what they cannot, is expanding. The agony of a unipolar world turns into erratic political blackmail. In turn, it ricochets national economies, hampers their development, increases the risks of new global crises,” said the First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma, adding that “double standards are mixed in with all this and […] there are countries that get away with everything“.
“The world of facts, logic, arguments is being forced out by the world of accusations, direction, fictional events unwound so powerfully that they substitute reality. All this is very disturbing. All this requires an objective joint analysis,” said Ivan Melnikov.
At the end of his speech, he called on colleagues from parliaments of other countries to pay attention to these alarming tendencies, as well as to the fact that “forces, which are not willing to subordinate the interests of their people to any external centers of financial or political management, if there is no consensus, there is no real consideration of each other’s opinions, are becoming more influential.”
“The peoples of the world want dialogue and cooperation to maintain justice and sustainable development. If it is a competition, it should be fair. If making a decision, it should be transparent and understandable. Based on this, we will be able to succeed,” Ivan Melnikov summarized.
