New Spirit of Cooperation
Al-Risala (English), January 1990, p. 21
By Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan is named as the default author of the periodical; a piece that carries another writer’s byline is credited to that writer.
New Spirit of Cooperation
1990 1 January 21-23 New Spirit of Cooperation (956) Realistic Approach NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV, the last Soviet communist party leader to address the general assembly, pounded a shoe on his desk and assured Americans that “we will bury you.” Mr. Mikhail Gorbachov’s arrival 28 years later starkly underscores the transformation in the US – Soviet relations since he took control of the party. In diplomatic circles today, the talk is of cooperation, mutual interests, and multilateral diplomacy. Confrontation between the capitalist and socialist systems has taken a back seat. US tycoons woo Mr. Gorbachov and his staff hints at a visit to Wall Street, the antithesis of Soviet ideology. In 1960, Khrushchev was enraged over the then UN secretary-general, Mr. Dag Hammarskjold’s action in sending US peacekeeping troops to the Congo, then a key Soviet client state. “The general assembly of 1960 was the greatest circus in the history of the United Nations,” recalls Mr. Brian Urquhart, who then was under secretary-general in charge of peacekeeping operations. Sometimes crude, profane and easily angered, Khrushchev created the most memorable scene in the history of UN debate when he interrupted a delegate’s remarks by pounding a shoe on the Soviet delegation’s desk for a point of order. “Khrushchev got so abusive that the Irish president of the assembly, Mr. Freddie Boland, broke the gavel in calling him to order, and the head of the gavel flew off into the general assembly,” said Mr. Urquhart. Mr. Gorbachov is likely to provide no melodramatic fireworks. Unlike Khrushchev, Mr. Gorbachov has rejected the idea that capitalism and socialism are mutually exclusive. This stress on cooperation in areas of mutual interest has been spilling over for some time into the UN.
The Soviet Union has in recent years relinquished its practice of vetoing many Security Council actions, and has negotiated consensus positions with the US, China, Britain and France. This new spirit of cooperation has led to the political settlement in Afghanistan and the cease-fire in the Iran-Iraq war, both of which would have been unlikely under the confrontative Soviet style of Khrushchev or Mr. Leonid I. Brezhnev. Under Mr. Gorbachov, the Soviet have been promoting an aggressive though hazy new plan for comprehensive international security. In which the UN would play a key role in monitoring, verification and peacekeeping. Mr. Gorbachov has also suggested that rulings of the world court, now merely advisory, be made binding on UN member nations, especially Security Council members. In his speech to the world body, Mr. Gorbachov may expand upon previous Soviet proposals, which have included the establishment of a world space organization, having all nations earmark troops for a standing army of UN peacekeepers, establishing a UN navy to escort commercial shipping in danger zones, and UN monitoring of disarmament and international arms sales. The US and other Western allies have lauded parts of the Soviet security proposals, but feel the whole package is too vague to endorse. A UN visit by a Soviet leader is a rarity-the foreign minister usually delivers the annual address to the general assembly. Between Khrushchev and Mr. Gorbachov, the only other top ranking Soviet visitor was premier Alexei N. Kosygin, the head of the Soviet government apparatus but less powerful than party chief Brezhnev, who came to the UN in 1967 to support Arab complaints against Israel. Mr. Kosygin held a summit with the US president, Mr. Lyndon B. Johnson.
The thaw in East-West relations since Mr. Gorbachov’s ascension to power is all the more striking when compared with the tensions that prevailed at the UN only five years age after the Soviet downing of Korean airline flight 0071, with the loss of 269 lives. The Soviet foreign minister, Mr. Andrei Gromyko, planned to come to the UN to explain his country’s actions, but the governors of New York and New Jersey denied permission for his plane to land at their commercial airports, and the state department insisted on a landing at a military base. Mr. Gormyko cancelled his visit. In the meantime, homeless activists angered by Gorbachov’s plans to visit New York city’s opulent Trump Tower are inviting the Soviet president to a homeless shelter and food line to get “a more balanced and realistic view of our nation.”
The Times of India, December 7, 1988.
Time magazine (13 February 1989) has on its cover in bold letters ‘Comrades again’. As we all know that although China and Russia both are communist countries, the enmity was going on between them for about 30 years. But now both countries are drawing nearer. This is the topic, which has been made cover story in the said issue of the Time. Inside the article carries this heading.
‘To mend a rift – an era of hostility is coming to an end.’
When both China and Russia saw that the enmity between them is only incurring harm to both of them then both of them decided to end this enmity and develop friendly relations. To reach this new decision they had to admit many of their past mistakes. They had to be willing to forsake their demands against one another. They bore the unbearable so that they may construct a better future for themselves. This is what is known as realism. No success can be achieved without this realism in the present world.
The USA, USSR and China are the most powerful nations of the world. When the powerful nations too can have no choice but to pursue the path of realism and understanding because there is no other way for their existence. Then, how on earth can weaker nations survive by adopting the policy of clash and confrontation. In such a state of affairs the weaker nations need to follow an approach of realism and understanding more than it is necessary for powerful nations.
