Slovak parliamentary speaker Peter Pellegrini, who shares prime minister Robert Fico’s staunch opposition to continued arms supplies to Ukraine, won the second round of Slovakia’s presidential election Saturday. Observers say Pellegrini's success proves his party's left-wing opposition to the Russo-Ukraine war is a winning formula.
Also this weekend, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned that an “authoritarian” alliance of several defiant countries is getting stronger, RT reported. The secretary general identified Russia, China, Iran and North Korea as powers that are becoming “more aligned” and posing a growing threat to the West.
American author and historian Dr. Gerald Horne, who holds the John G. and Rebecca Moores chair of History and African-American studies at the University of Houston, broke down these developments on Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program Monday. When asked by Sputnik’s Wilmer Leon if Sunday’s report may give a “broader mindset” in Europe, Horne said, “most definitely”.
“The vote in Slovakia is an indication of the fact that the bloc led by Beijing and Moscow, including the BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa – is eclipsing the G7. The Group of Seven led by the US, the Western European nations and Japan. The fact is that the former can offer better deals and better terms than the latter,” Horne explained.
“Later this week there will be a war-making summit between the Japanese Prime Minister, the Filipino president, Mr. Marcos, and, of course, Mr. Biden, taking place in the Oval Office. This inevitably will end in tears, but it will go forward nonetheless,” Horne added.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will hold a summit with US President Joe Biden in Washington, DC Wednesday, where Philippine leaders will also be present. The reported goal of the meeting is to strengthen the alliance between the three states in response to China’s growing influence.
“In other words, they have their fingers in so many different pies that it leads to an outflow of capital and inability to focus and concentrate. And, certainly, you see that with regard to the US with regard to this question of imperial overstretch,” he added, referencing a text by a Yale scholar suggesting that great power oftentimes “run aground” because of imperial overstretch.
“The recent remarks coming out of the NATO leadership suggest that — despite its 75th anniversary as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — it's increasingly focused on the People's Republic of China, which is nowhere near the North Atlantic, because it has constructed this story that behind Russia, behind Iran, behind North Korea is the newest iteration of the evil empire — the People’s Republic of China,” Horne said.
“But, once again, this focus on China is a nonstarter. Like so many other elements of the US strategy, it will end in tears.”
“With regard to NATO, which I'm sure the Slovakian leadership picked up on... NATO is splitting. It's beset by fissures and divisions, particularly at the top between France and Germany, with Germany being more dovish than the hawkishness of France. And this does not bode well for the future of NATO, nor does it bode well for the future of the EU,” Horne continued.
“There's a lot of blame to go around with regard to how we have reached the precipice of World War III," he said.
Leon then noted a comment that Stoltenberg mad during an interview Sunday in which the secretary general said China is “propping up the Russian war economy, delivering key parts for the defense industry, and in return, Moscow is mortgaging its future to Beijing.”
“Mr. Stoltenberg recognizes that the only way NATO might be able to escape a certain defeat is by driving a stake into the heart of the Russian-Chinese relationship,” Horne responded. “But, of course, he needn't look further than the EU to see how the mighty can fall. And that, I'm afraid to say, is a descriptor for his own NATO."