THE 53rd meeting World Economic Forum (WEF) held this month was a meeting point for leaders, civil society representatives, and top-performing business people where discussions addressed multiple global crises and ways to mitigate the substantial risks they pose to the global economic and security system.

Jane Harman, a former nine-term congresswoman from California, recalling the old Helsinki Final Act that was signed in August 1975 following two years of negotiations, known as the Helsinki Process, argued that Russia violated every single article of the Helsinki Accords. Expressing the fear that China would take military action against Taiwan, she stressed that intervention by the United States through military hardware support to Ukraine would stop China in its tracks.

The truth is that there can be peace in Ukraine if and only if the US backs off with its aggressive designs and allows for diplomatic channels to find an amicable solution among the states that once were part of the erstwhile Soviet Union when they shared deep cultural, economic and political bond.

Faisal Habib
Karachi

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2023