As you may know, the Non-Aligned Movement, which was formed by countries that did not want to take part in either the Atlantic Alliance or the "Iron Curtain" during the Cold War, is called the "Global South."
The countries that make up the Global South are discussing how they can develop more intensive cooperation in the global economic-political system on global and regional cooperation platforms such as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). An important concept at the center of the discussions is strategic autonomy.
The essence of this concept is for a nation to maintain strong alliance relations while simultaneously cultivating the capacity to think independently and act based on its own values and interests within a multipolar world. It involves embracing a multilateral "open door policy" and prioritizing its own objectives.
Interestingly, the concept of strategic autonomy is not limited to countries of the "Global South," as it is also being deliberated among member states of the Atlantic Alliance. In a world where the global economic-political balance is shifting from the Atlantic to the Asia-Pacific, leading nations worldwide have experienced significant differences, conflicting ideas, and conflicting interests with their supposed alliance partners over the past 22 years of the 21st century.
Furthermore, they have faced inadequate support from these same allies during the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, finding themselves in situations where self-reliance became paramount in ensuring the security of energy, food and health supplies.
For this reason, regarding the 30-year period after the Cold War, all the leading countries of the world embraced the concept of strategic autonomy, and the indispensability of becoming a self-sufficient country in strategic fields such as defense, energy, agri-food, health, digital technology and logistics. The most critical problem that prioritizes and makes the concept of strategic autonomy so important is the fragility of the trust in the global multilateral system, the fairness and impartiality of the international organizations that represent it, and the transparency and justice of the decisions taken in these multilateral organizations. Accordingly, rebuilding full trust in the multilateral system will be a challenging task until the global economic-political system undergoes the necessary reforms to enhance its transparency, fairness and impartiality.
In fact, when we remember that the objective for the foundation of the U.N. Charter and its principles are to protect multilateralism, it would be appropriate to remember the big responsibility of multilateral organizations to re-strengthen the trust in the global multilateral system.
Currently, international multilateral organizations bear a greater responsibility to invite humanity to a "common destiny," to struggle together for lasting peace and stability on a global scale, to fight against poverty, and hunger, and against the global climate crisis.
For 10 years without interruption, Türkiye has been calling for the "building of a common destiny for humanity" in all international multilateral organizations.
Today, we clearly see that these calls are indispensable to regaining confidence in the global economic-political system. For this reason, we will continue to follow these ongoing discussions on a global scale and the search for solutions.
