Former president of Slovenia: Decoupling and de-risking means losing hard earned benefits of globalization

Danilo Türk (on screen), former president of Slovenia and current president of The Club of Madrid, speaks at A Global Geopolitical Outlook sub forum under the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2024 in Boao, south China’s Hainan Province, March 27, 2024. (Photo/People’s Daily Online)

Danilo Türk, former President of Slovenia, has said that the concepts of de-coupling and de-risking in the global economy and trade introduced recently by the U.S. and E.U. are causing the world to lose what was achieved in the period of intensive globalization.

Türk also warned that the much promoted Western rules-based order and universal values are vague and are contributing to global confusion.

Speaking in an interview with a People’s Daily Online reporter on Wednesday, March 27 on the sideline of the ongoing Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2024 in Boao, China, Türk said that decoupling is already showing problematic effects and that the world should not lose what was achieved through globalization.

“I am for more cooperation. I think that decoupling is already showing problematic effects, and we shouldn’t be losing what was achieved in the period of intensive globalization,” said Türk, who is currently president of The Club of Madrid.

He said that efforts have to be made to help everybody to “take advantage, to win. Win-win is a very good concept and decoupling is not serving such a concept.”

With regards to de-risking, which is also a concept promoted by Western countries when dealing economically or in doing business with China, Türk emphasized that by nature, businesses or business people are embedded with risks and they don’t have to be told by politicians to de-risk.

“Businesses, business people are dealing with risks 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Risk is inherent in business cooperation, so they don’t have to be told by politicians to de-risk. They will know what the risks are and how to handle risks,” said Türk, who served as president of Slovenia between 2007 and 2012.

He said that de-risking as a political slogan is not helpful and should not be used. Rather, businesses should be allowed to do what they can do to reduce risks. “The policy framework, which is something international institutions and governments can put in place, should not be motivated by de-risking, but by creating space for businesses to cooperate for their mutual benefits,” he said.

Danilo Türk (second, right), former president of Slovenia and current president of The Club of Madrid participates as a panelist at A Global Geopolitical Outlook sub forum under the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2024 in Boao, south China’s Hainan Province, March 27, 2024. (Photo/People’s Daily Online)

Responding to a question related to the concepts of a rules-based order and universal values that for a long time have also been used by Western countries, especially the U.S., as a pretext to expand in Asia and other regions and cause regional tensions and instability, Türk, who was one of the panelists for A Global Geopolitical Outlook sub forum under the Boao Forum, said he has doubted these concepts for long time.

“I have doubts about the terminology of the rules-based order, because it’s not sufficiently precise. What rules? Which rules? Whose rules? It’s not clear,” Türk said.

“One needs to speak about the rules of international law, which are established by international law, and international institution frameworks such as the United Nations, World Trade Organization, and international financial institutions,” he stressed.

“We have all these international legal norms and institutions established, and we have to talk about them. If talk is more general about rules-based order, we are only contributing to confusion, and there is much confusion nowadays,” he said.

"I think there are universal values enshrined in the international instruments, which are acceptable by the member states of the United Nations,” Türk said, giving as an example the prohibition of all forms of racial discrimination under the U.N. convention for elimination of all forms of racial discrimination.

“So here we have clearly the situation of universal values, but we clearly see also those values are not followed by those who claim to be in favor of universal values. We see that racism is prevalent in many places around the world, so one has to be careful when talking about universal values,” he warned.