Appeasement or tacit approval of invasion and capture of foreign land helped the rise of Adolf Hitler and the formation of the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo axis that wreaked havoc on the world before and during World War II. History appears to be repeating itself as US President Donald Trump’s illegal action of seizing Venezuela’s President and his wife and brazenly declaring the US “takes control” of the country is not being effectively resisted and condemned by either European countries, the United Nations or even Russia and China. Only pious platitudes are being mouthed against the US without any tangible, deterrent action to check the egregious aggrandizement and violation of international laws. The way Russia and China – the two countries that could have taken a lead in stopping Trump in his tracks – have raised only verbal protest, and without any back up concrete actions it suggests a possible new Washington-Moscow-Beijing axis is being formed to usurp foreign land and resources and divide the booty among themselves. Russia has illegally captured and occupied vast tracts of agriculturally rich Ukraine, while China is eagerly waiting to take over Taiwan by force at any opportune time it thinks fit.
Significantly, the pre-Trump US arrangements to stop Russia and China from their land grab designs such as NATO membership proposal to Ukraine and QUAD bloc of USA, Australia, Japan and India to counter China have been thrown into virtual limbo since Trump occupied the White House for the second time. On the other hand, Trump has cosied up to Putin and Xi.
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In the past few months he has asserted that he had talks with Putin following which he hardened the US position against Ukraine and has since been trying to force Ukraine to agree to Russia’s plan of permanently occupying a sizable part of the country. There is reason to suspect Trump and Putin had clinched a secret deal to let Russia illegally annex Ukraine’s territory, while the US would grab land in Venezuela and other South and Central American countries. Xi must have been privy to the plan so that he would have his share in Taiwan and India and no nation will be in a position to protest. What happened in the emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on 5 January convened in the wake of the brazen attack on Venezuela by the US is nothing but expressions of impotent rage by some and equivocation by others. As if to placate Trump, many member states agreed with the US that Venezuela’s President- Nicolas Maduro- had been an illegitimate and repressive leader. They forgot that it does not give the US or any other country the authority to decide who would rule the Venezuelans. Some of the countries did admit the US military action was a breach of international law and the UN Charter.
Among US allies, France was by far the most outspoken. The deputy ambassador of France to the UN, Jay Dharmadhikari, said Maduro’s taking by the US runs “counter to the principle of peaceful dispute resolution and the principle of the non-use of force.” He told the Council the proliferation of violations of the Charter of the UN and the violations of international law by states vested with responsibility as permanent members of the Security Council strikes at the very foundation of the international order and the principle of respect for independence and territorial integrity of states. Similarly, the deputy UN ambassador for Denmark, Sandra Jensen Landi said the developments constitute a dangerous precedent. The French and Danish criticism now places them alongside Spain whose Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez showed courage to say his government would not recognise an intervention that violates international law and pushes the region toward a horizon of uncertainty and belligerence.
In contrast, both the UK and Greece did not condemn the US military operation at all. What the diplomats from Russia and China said could best be termed as inanities. Russia’s ambassador, Vassili Nebenzia, accused the US of “international banditry” and “neo-colonialism and imperialism.” China’s Chargé d’Affaires, Sun Lei, said Beijing was “deeply shocked and strongly condemned” the “unilateral, illegal and bullying acts of the US.” The UN Secretary General looked pathetic when he said he was deeply concerned that rules of international law have not been respected during the US action. His assertion that the power of the law must prevail is rather an admission that the UN is a toothless organization that has no power to rein in a superpower such as the USA.
Trump continues to threaten that he proposes to follow a similar strategy in the case of several other South American countries along with India, while predicting Cuba would fall on its own. He seems to be going ahead with his agenda of establishing a new world order controlled by autocrats, in which the only principle that works is – might is right. It is India which now seems to have fallen into a trap that seems to be encircling it from all sides. Indian diplomacy and political leadership is bound to face even harder challenges in the near future.
