Saturday is the first of the two-day international Schiller Institute conference, on the theme, “The World on the Brink: For a New Peace of Westphalia!” With speakers on four panels, from ten countries, it is designed to not only review the current emergency situation of the danger of nuclear war, but to provide the concepts, courage and inspiration for a solution.
The first panel focuses on the conspicuous lack of competent leadership in the West, and is titled, “Europe after the European Elections.” That is currently on display at the Group of Seven Summit in Italy, where the principal attendees are all lame ducks, with the partial exception of hostess Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Their policy actions over the last two days reflect why they are seen as has-beens in their nations. They express belligerence, threats, and either ignorance, or refusal to face and change any fundamental strategic, economic or cultural crises. Worse, their provocative actions are shifting the world toward nuclear annihilation, unless stopped.
U.S. President Joe Biden summed up the G7’s proudest, ignominious measures in three points, referring in particular to the 10-year agreement he signed June 13 with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for U.S. war-making support. Biden said, “We’ve taken three major steps at the G7 that collectively show Putin we cannot—he cannot wait us out, he cannot divide us, and we will be with Ukraine until they prevail in this war. First is the bilateral security agreement just signed. Second, a historic agreement to provide $50 billion in value from Russian sovereign assets to Ukraine. And third, an agreement to ensure our sanctions efforts disrupt third countries that are supplying Russia’s war efforts.”
Yesterday in Brussels, military leaders from NATO nations met to confer on further action against Russia. This weekend in Switzerland, a sham “peace” conference is being held, featuring the so-called Zelenskyy peace proposal, from which Russia was excluded from the start, which means there is no basis for even initiating negotiations to reach a ceasefire and agreement.
Above all this madness, Russian President Vladimir Putin today gave a major speech to Foreign Ministry senior officials, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other top leadership. He delivered a powerful review of global and regional affairs, focusing primarily on the historical background and “arrogant and reckless” role played by the West—the United States in particular—which led to Russia’s launching its special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine. He comprehensively discussed the need for a new global and Eurasian security architecture, how Europe has destroyed itself through its “critical and increasing dependence on the United States,” and the “tragic” results stemming from “NATO diplomacy.”
However, he addressed why there is cause for hope. He reported on the emergence of the new multilateral world order and institutions such as the BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and other elements of the new “system-wide changes [which] certainly inspire optimism and hope.”
President Putin presented the terms in which Russia is open right now for negotiations on Ukraine. But his presentation included the warning that the “self-centeredness and arrogance of Western countries have led us to a highly perilous situation today. We are inching dangerously close to a point of no return.”
This brings home the warning and call-to-action powerfully delivered June 12 in Washington D.C. at the National Press Club emergency press conference, “The Danger of Nuclear War Is Real, and Must Be Stopped”, sponsored by the Schiller Institute. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder, spoke, alongside three U.S. military-intelligence specialists, calling on citizens to become activated immediately. Speaking were Scott Ritter, former UN weapons inspector, and U.S. Marines intelligence officer; Col. Richard H. Black (ret.), former head of the U.S. Army’s Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon (views not those of the DOD or its agencies); and Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (ret.), former chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.
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