A Euro-BRICS joint statement on the Ukrainian crisis. Three strategic proposals

We [1] the undersigned members of civil society in Europe and the BRICS (academic professors and researchers, think-tank leaders, journalists, business representatives, civil society representatives), declare our joint concern with the trends currently at play resulting from the crisis in Ukraine. These trends affect the international community, threaten the sovereignty of Ukraine and the independence of Europe, and are triggering an unwelcome polarisation of the international system and impacting an always fragile geopolitical balance.

We wish to remind that a historical transition from a unipolar world with the US as the sole superpower towards a multipolar world is underway, knowing that this process should be accompanied rather than contained. The whole world, including Europe and the United States, will gain from a commonly-conducted re-organisation of global governance that recognizes multipolarity.

We wish to reaffirm our analysis[2] that Europe is able to contribute positively to the peaceful emergence of a multipolar world. Indeed the Ukrainian crisis has showed that, while an independent and open Europe provides grounds for the emergence of a multipolar world, a one-sided Europe creates the conditions for a world polarized between a Western bloc and the new global powers.

Therefore, we strongly oppose the disruption of Euro-Russian relations and its negative consequences on Euro-BRICS future-bearer relations, with the deployment of troops on both sides of the Euro-Russian border and in particular of US military troops on Europe’s territory, with the growing tensions provoked by the uncoordinated free-trade policies of Europe and Russia on common border countries such as Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova.

We consider that the Ukrainian crisis calls for the establishment of a diplomatic arena to discuss Europe’s and Russia’s rights to organize their common markets in a framework of peaceful coexistence.

We note the humanitarian emergency situation in Ukraine and crimes and abuses committed against the civil populations during the Ukrainian crisis and urge that these should be promptly dealt with and investigated.

We believe that the Euro-BRICS cooperation framework can provide the proper mediation required to reach a positive result.

The situation requires global leaders with a high sense of historical responsibility and collective interest. This statement calls on this sense of historical responsibility and collective interest.

–> ACKNOWLEDGING SHARED RESPONSIBILITIES AS A PREREQUISITE – We have agreed that responsibilities for the crisis in Ukraine must be shared among Europe and Russia. On the basis of the recognition of each player’s responsibilities can peace be rebuilt in Ukraine and Euro-Russian relations revived.

–> RESUMING EURO-RUSSIAN RELATIONS TO CREATE THE CONDITIONS FOR A UKRAINIAN-LED CRISIS RESOLUTION – It behooves the Ukrainian people to organize and rebuild peace in Ukraine. However there is no way tensions between the pro-Russian and pro-European Ukrainians will de-escalate if tensions between Russia and Europe do not de-escalate first. Therefore, for the sake of peace in Ukraine, we require European and Russian leaders to re-launch a constructive dialogue. In particular we wish to encourage the media to provide more objective information and to correct any misinformation that might lead to future conflict.

–> A EURO-BRICS BACK-UP OF THE CRISIS RESOLUTION EFFORT – As a contribution to encourage and mediate the Euro-Russian effort to re-launch a solution-oriented dialogue, we request Euro-BRICS leaders[3] that they[4] convene the first “Euro-BRICS summit for Ukraine” in an effort to establish causes, identify solutions and contribute to put in place the political and diplomatic conditions for a sovereign resolution of the Ukrainian crisis and the prevention of similar crises with other Euro-Russian border states in the future.



Undersigned members of civil society in Europe and the BRICS (academic professors and researchers, think-tank leaders, journalists, business representatives) by alphabetical order:

• Adriana Abdenur – Professor, Institute of International Relations, PUC-Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Jean-Paul Baquiast – Honorary State comptroller / Publisher of www.europe-solidaire.eu, Paris, France
• Marie-Hélène Caillol – President LEAP/E2020 (Laboratoire européen d’Anticipation Politique), Paris, France
• Jayanthi Chandrasekharan – Assistant Professor, Department of French, Loyola College, Chennai, India
• Jose-Maria Compagni-Morales – President FEFAP (Fundación para la Educación y Formación en Anticipación Política), Associate Professor IE Business School, Sevilla, Spain
• Taco Dankers – Entrepreneur, software engineer, Dankers & Frank, Consulting and Software Engineering, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Baudouin De Sonis – Executive manager, e-Forum & EU-China-Forum / Associate director IERI (Institut Européen des Relations Internationales), Brussels, Belgium
• Anna Gots – Financial Director, AEGEE-Europe / European Students’ Forum, Belgium
• Harald Greib – President IRPA (Internationaler Rat fur Politische Antizipation), Hamburg, Germany
• Christel Hahn – General coordinator AAFB, Germany
• Michael Kahn - Professor Extraordinaire, Stellenbosch University, South Africa / Director, Research and Innovation Associates, Cape Town, South Africa
• Caroline Lubbers – Project manager Euro-BRICS, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Bruno Paul - Doctor in Sciences, founder of conscience-sociale.org, Paris, France
• Zhongqi Pan – Professor at Center for BRICS studies, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
• Sylvain Perifel – Coordinator GEAB, Leap2020, Paris, France
• Marianne Ranke-Cormier – President Newropeans, Paris, France
• Yi Shen - Associate Professor at Center for BRICS studies, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
• Suyuan Sun – Research Associate at Center for BRICS studies, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
• Veronique Swinkels - Director general, BBK/Door Vriendschap Sterker, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Alexander Zhebit – Professor of International relations, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Jiejin Zhu - Associate Professor at Center for BRICS studies, Fudan University, Shanghai, China