President Alexander Stubb said the West's grip on power needs to be distributed
Finland’s President Alexander Stubb says he believes the world’s power is shifting to the south and east.
He made these remarks during the opening addresses by world leaders at the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg on Saturday.
‘Change in the world order’
“[President Cyril Ramaphosa], for me this meeting is very much a symbol of multilateralism and what you are trying to do here is to bring this group of key countries together that have both demography and economy on their side.
“And you are doing this at a time when there is clearly a change in the world order where I believe personally that the nexus of power is moving eastbound and southbound,” he said.
ALSO READ: G20 overwhelmingly adopts a Leaders’ declaration without the US
Stubb said the world must choose between multilateralism and multipolarity.
“These two things are very different. For me, multilateralism is about cooperation, it is about rules, it is about norms and it is about institutions.
“My big worry right now is that the world is moving more towards a multipolar direction and multipolarity, though it gives power to nations and states, it is problematic because it’s more transactional, it’s more about deals and therefore it’s more prone to conflict,” he said.
World’s power structure is ‘unfair’
Stubb said he was pleased with some of the interventions that have come out of this G20 concerning trade rules and rules governing how nations engage with each other.
“My biggest worry right now is that we are not seeing enough multilateralism in three key conflicts that have been raging around the world; Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, the situation in Gaza and the situation in Sudan.
“So I hope that we lean towards multilateralism and let me say, coming from a small country, what I believe the West should do. I think the West should understand that the multilateral institutions that were created after World War 2 and that were upheld after the Cold War, the power structure of them is right now unfair it needs to be changed.
“We need to distribute power in the world that exists today, not in the world that existed in 1945. That is the best way for us to drive multilateralism,” he said.
ALSO READ: Ramaphosa issues veiled attack against Trump at opening of G20 Summit
Stubb’s comments come at a time when US President Donald Trump has been criticised for bullying nations with smaller economies.
Trump’s campaign that won him a second term as US president was based on making America a world powerhouse.
He has been involved in spats with various world leaders. He has also boycotted this G20 Summit.
