MUNICH – A Nobel Peace Prize winner from South America has warned that the West’s heavy focus on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine risks alienating much of the rest of the world, which is already dealing with consequences of higher food and energy prices due to war.
Juan Manuel Santos, former president of Colombia, said: “Ukraine is draining its energy, as there are now more than 100 conflicts in the world. “There is a discord here” with the southern hemisphere, he said. “And if this war drags on, the risk of finding less and less support for it is very real.”
Mr. Santos spoke to The New York Times over the weekend on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, where leaders of the United States and other Western nations doubled commitment to support Ukraine. He said he told Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, during a visit to Kyiv in August “that you have to do more outside of Europe to find and maintain support in Latin America and Africa, ‘ due to the economic costs of the war on the world’s poor.
Mr. Santos said there was general recognition that Russia was the aggressor in Ukraine. “But reality changes people’s perceptions,” he continued. “They are concerned about oil prices and food shortages. And when you say, ‘Brazil can invade Colombia’, they laugh, because that’s a theory. They want their food.”
Other leaders in Munich have also expressed concern about the perception of the war in the Southern Hemisphere, but Mr. Santos is much more outspoken about the extent of the problem.
Mr. Santos won Nobel Peace Prize 2016 for his efforts to negotiate a peace agreement with the Colombian rebel group known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, but only after waging a tough military campaign against them.
Slogans do not bring peace, and negotiations to end conflict tend to be messy and morally fuzzy, he said.
“There is always a moral dilemma in every conflict and every peace process,” he said. “There is a conflict between peace and justice.”
The often suggested ending in the West is for Ukraine to win outright, which Mr. Santos considers unrealistic as the army and population become exhausted and the conflict becomes unsustainable.
“Sometimes you need to think about ending a war before you win,” he said.
Mr. Santos, now 71 years old,
says much of the Southern Hemisphere sees “hypocrisy” in the West’s repeated invocation of the UN charter. He acknowledged that Russia, a member of the Security Council, had clearly violated the charter. But other conflicts have not generated the same level of outrage in Washington and European capitals, he said, citing the prolonged struggle between Israel and Palestine and the steady rise of Israeli settlements. on occupied land.
“This is also a violation of international law, and there the great powers are silent,” he said.
“The focus on Ukraine also distracts people from fighting climate change,” he said, adding: “It’s a much more disturbing challenge that we face.”
