With the Participation of Syria, an International Forum to Address the modern practices of neo-colonialism in Moscow

With the participation of Syria, the Forum of Supporters of the Struggle Against Modern Practices of Neocolonialism, organized by the United Russia Party in the Russian capital Moscow, opened on Saturday under the slogan “For the Freedom of Nations”.

400 representatives of political parties from more than fifty countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Europe and the CIS countries took part in the forum.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a letter to participants in the forum: “Neocolonialism is a shameful legacy of centuries-long plunder and exploitation of the people of Africa, Asia, Latin America and other regions of the planet. We can see its aggressive manifestations in the attempts by the collective West to preserve their stranglehold and domination at any cost, to economically subjugate other countries, to deprive them of sovereignty and to impose alien values and cultural traditions upon them. This practice has become one of the main destabilizing factors in international relations and an obstacle to the development of humankind as a whole”.

“I would like to note that our country has done a great deal to dismantle the foundations of the colonial system and support national liberation movements, Putin added.

For his part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed that the system of exploitation represented by neo-colonial practices is unjustifiable. He said that the constructive alternative for this system is to form a more just and sustainable multi-polar system of international relations based on the Charter of the United Nations and the principle of equal sovereignty States.

In turn, representative of the Arab Socialist Ba ‘ath Party Mahdi Dakhallah, who represented Syria in the forum, said “a dangerous development has taken place in the nature of neo-colonialism, which is dangerous not only for certain peoples but also for all humankind, including the peoples of the states of domination and neo-colonialism themselves. The concept of neo-colonialism was limited to the use of economic and political hegemonic methods, racism itself, sanctions, boycotts and all kinds of exploitation, and this concept has changed today, he added.

He explained that the dangerous development occurred on several levels, including the restoration of old colonial methods, such as wars and occupation, the use of terrorism of both types, and the use of practices and concepts in order to eliminate the cultural value structure of humanity. He indicated that “new colonialism uses all of these methods together according to the regions. In Syria, Eurasia, and Palestine, new colonialism meet old colonialism. As for neoliberalism, it is a danger that threatens the entire humanity”.

Dakhlallah went on to say: “the first organized confrontation of neo-colonialism and neo-liberalism appeared in 2005, when the Moscow Declaration was issued in the Russian capital and signed by President Bashar Al-Assad and President Vladimir Putin. It included a call to consolidate a new world order based on the rule of international law, democracy and human rights, confronting terrorism, hegemony and racism, and establishing international cooperation to protect family affairs, sign agreements on this subject, and emphasize respect for the historical, spiritual and cultural particularities of peoples within the framework of their cooperation to consolidate human values”.

“In Syria, there has been a pioneering role for 12 years in confronting the NATO its affiliates of mercenary terrorism, economic and diplomatic war, occupation and the theft of wealth, while Russia faces the expansion of NATO and its tools of neo-Nazism. We are also witnessing the heroism of the Palestinian people in confronting Zionism as the worst type of neo-colonialism”, Dakhlallah affirmed.

In their interventions, the other participants pointed out that the methods of neo-colonialism are no longer limited to the use of armies and fleets, but currently extend to media wars, the plundering of Natural resources and even the promotion of food products that harm the health of citizens of developing countries and encouraging policies of genocide and racial cleansing, as Israel is doing against the Palestinian people and other Arab peoples.

They called for uniting the efforts of the governments, peoples and leading parties of independent sovereign countries to counteract the dangers and aggressiveness of neocolonialism.

Amal Farhat