Updated: September 17, 2022
I really became aware of Uzbekistan and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Astana, Kazakhstan, when I was invited in June 2018 as a speaker (and presented a Letter from then-U.S. House Foreign Affairs Chairman Hon. Eliot L. Engel) to the 20th anniversary of “Astana, City of Peace” celebration, by a dear and wise friend, then-Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov, and over one of the most intimate and enjoyable ministerial dinners I met then-SCO Secretary-General, the charming Dr. Vladimir Norov, a then-former Uzbek foreign minister.
I was deeply touched upon learning that dear SG Norov’s father, a Muslim, who fought in WW II and lost his best friend fighting right next to him during that war, named his son “Vladimir” to honor his friend. I also learned that SCO’s important menu of duties includes counter-terrorism, a matter very close to my heart since 9/11, as that day and event is worse than December 7, 1941, a day that still lives in infamy as the Arizona still leaks oil in Pearl Harbor.
On September 11, 2022, we warmly received an Op-Ed penned by H. E. Shavkat Mirziyoyev, duly elected, twice, as President of the Republic of Uzbekistan since 2016 after the untimely death of the first President, H. E. Islam Karimov, and respectfully published same.
While even trade (gas and oil) can be weaponized, we thank President Mirziyoyev for his efforts to de-weaponize war itself during the Samarkand SCO Summit this week with his insightful and warm diplomacy with Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, aided by P.M. Narendra Modi of India, who later this year, while a core member of the Quad, takes on the chairmanship of SCO and hosts the G20 as proof by deed that: “now is not an era of war.”
The challenge of our interconnected world, like never before, is that war is truly disruptive and the “innocents” who are hurt or hungry the world over are now heard and seen, like never before, thanks to social media. This causes a domestic political tsunami of discontent in every nation, as continuing proof of our lovable Speaker Tip O’Neill’s wisdom: “all politics is local.” This, then, requires that peace be assertively waged, as nations wage war.
Fairness and equity are the hallmarks of justice, and the lessons of the Weimar Republic instruct that to avoid any Third Reich from being born, is not to get excessive reparations even from the vanquished. The unjust proxy war started by Russia against us for its perceived Reverse Cuban Missile Crisis, but fought on Ukrainian soil, is Russia’s “Vietnam” on steroids, and more damaging. I wish for President Putin to take a page from our history and our genuine befriending of Vietnam decades later, exemplified by the late great Senator John McCain warmly embracing a happy joint future in Hanoi. Then, he would know that a free and fairly negotiated peace with Ukraine (and with our-led NATO) is better than an unending war by Russia in brave Ukraine, or worse, if that 2-nation war become a 2nd Chernobyl or serve as an already lit fuse of WW III – each, super disruptive – causing every nation to then compete with Sri Lanka’s recent unrest, collaterally caused by the “special military operation,” that is neither special nor military-grade, worthy of Russia.
I applaud President Xi Jinping of China for his “concerns and questions” relative to this war, as it serves to stabilize not only in Samarkand, but every day in Beijing, and invite him to join us in promoting freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and beyond, and generate a genuine desire to join the Quad as our team-mate, for without us in 1971 opening up the world for CCP’s brilliant PRC Chairman Mao, there would be no China enjoying her rejuvenation. We made China great and a P5 member.
Finally, as a reality check, we are facing an existential threat from Mother Nature, and rising sea levels won’t give a damn for our sovereignty, borders and flags. We need to come together and actually personify – each and every nation – the Ideals enshrined in the United Nations’ Charter and wage peace with undying passion! The well deserved elegant funeral, with full pageantry, for Queen Elizabeth II is on Monday September 19th – a perfect send off of more than the unflappable steely-spined monarch, worthy of the British Empire’s centurieslong steadfastness. The next day, is the High Level UN General Assembly in New York where global leaders, led by our President Joe Biden, will seek to harness our hopes and dreams to banish war and mollify Mother Nature.
We need to wage peace like never before, with H.E. Csaba Korosi presiding as PGA77 – a true believer of “solutions through Solidarity, Sustainability and Science” – and hence, welcome destiny seeking a new and better outcome for us all.
Ravi Batra, Esq.
Ravi Batra, starting September 11, 2021, is a publisher of The America Times Company Ltd., and since January 2022, is the Editor-in-Chief. He is a member of the National Press Club, in Washington D.C., and a member of its "Freedom of the Press" and "International Correspondents" Teams/Committees.
A member of the bar since 1981, he is the head of a boutique law firm in Manhattan, The Law Firm of Ravi Batra, P.C., that handles complex constitutional, sovereignty, torture, civil and criminal cases, representing governments, corporates and individuals, with landmark legal victories, including, libel in fiction, in “Batra v. Dick Wolf.” He is Chairman & CEO, Greenstar Global Energy Corp., King Danylo of Galicia International Ltd., Mars & Pax Advisors, Ltd., Chairman of National Advisory Council on South Asian Affairs, and since September 2021, Advisor for Legal and Humanitarian Affairs to the Permanent Mission of Georgia to the United Nations. He is invited by various governments to address High Level Ministerial events, including, on Counter-Terrorism, including, Astana (Nur-Sultan), Dushanbe, Minsk and Delhi. He has testified in Congress as an invitee of the Chair, U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, and interacted with U.S. Department of State from 1984 -1990, and then again, from 2006, during the tenures of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Rex Tillerson, Mike Pompeo and Antony Blinken.
He has served as Commissioner of New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE), Trustee on New York State IOLA Board, New York State Judicial Screening Committee for the Second Judicial Department, City Bar’s Judicial Committee, Vice-Chair of Kings County Democratic County Committee’s Independent Judicial Screening Committee for the then-2nd Judicial Department of Brooklyn and Staten Island, Chair of NYSTLA’ Judicial Independence Committee, with many more bar leadership roles, including, NYSBA’s House of Delegates for four years. He has served as Advisor for Legal & Human Rights Affairs to the Permanent Mission of Ukraine post-annexation of Crimea till 2021, and Legal Advisor to numerous nations’ permanent missions to the U. N. since 2009, including, India, Pakistan, Honduras and Malta. He has served: as Global Special Counsel to The Antonov Company in Ukraine, a state-owned company, and was registered with the Justice Dept pursuant to FARA; and as Special Global Advisor to Rector/President of both - National Aviation University of Ukraine and National Technical University of Ukraine/KPI. He remains involved in geopolitics and public policy since the mid-1980's, starting with being on House Speaker Tip O’Neill’s Speaker’s Club and appointed member of NACSAA during President Ronald Reagan’s tenure. In 1988, he was part of U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese’s Delegation to Japan to resolve bilateral trade imbalance. He regularly interacts with the multilateral diplomatic community, and during the High Level UNGA Debate, with heads of State/Government. He is sought for his views as a speaker and writer.