A roundtable discussion was held to address NATO member countries’ responsibility under international law for unleashing wars.
A roundtable discussion, titled The Responsibility of the US-Led NATO Member Countries under International Law for Starting Wars: Crimes Without Statute of Limitation, was organised by Chair of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs Grigory Karasin, in collaboration with the Federation Council Committee on Defence and Security.
The roundtable discussion was attended by Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev, Russian senators sitting on the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, and the Federation Council Committee on Defence and Security, as well as Foreign Ministry officials and members of the academic community.
In his opening remarks, Konstantin Kosachev said that, conceptually, this roundtable discussion was seeking to address an important issue in today’s international relations that gives rise to numerous problems. The senator said: “Success in finding a solution to the issue of responsibility that states and blocs of states bear under international law for aggression and other crimes could mark a fundamentally new phase in the development of international law.”
Konstantin Kosachev pointed out that currently there are no mechanisms in international law to hold international organisations, particularly military and political blocs, accountable.
“However, it is obvious that at least two organisations – NATO and the EU – tend to abuse this gap in international law as they consistently seek to impose their supremacy, their domination and their interests on the entire world,” Konstantin Kosachev said. “Therefore, we need to discuss the introduction of restrictions in international law to curb such ambitious and illegitimate actions by these two blocs.”
Grigory Karasin reminded the audience that NATO’s operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia, had been carried out without the approval of the UN Security Council, while the invasion by the collective West of Iran, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria had led to disastrous consequences for these countries.
“The international community will inevitably raise the issue of responsibility and reparations for violations of international law and aggressive actions,” Grigory Karasin said. “It is crucial to develop approaches to address this issue well in advance.”
“The existing mechanisms of international law that could be utilised to punish violations have proved to be either ineffective or insufficient or, even more often, blatantly biased,” Grigory Karasin emphasised.
The participants in the roundtable discussion touched on the efforts to counter the attempts by the West to manipulate international courts and other international institutions and explored the creation of new mechanisms in international law as a new multipolar world takes shape, which may ensure the restoration of justice by bringing the collective West countries and individuals responsible for initiating aggressive wars to account.
The participants put forward a number of promising approaches to resolving the issues under discussion and several practical measures in the fields of law, politics and information.