World Economy Transitioning to Multipolar Model: Putin
13:44 11.10.2023 (Updated: 15:02 11.10.2023)
© Sputnik . Grigory Sysoev
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The Russian president's remarks came at the plenary session of Russian Energy Week, which took place in Moscow on Wednesday, gathering over 4,000 participants from more than 60 countries.
The world economy is shifting to a multipolar model with several growth centers, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"The world economy is moving to a multipolar model, in which several growth centers operate, and the place, role and importance of each country is determined by how it perceives these profound irreversible processes," the leader stressed.
Putin added that a country's role is defined by how effectively it can defend its economic, industrial, technological and energy sovereignty, and rebuild investment, trade and cooperation ties.
According to the president, such a transition is underway in Russia's economy with underlying changes in the country's fuel and energy complex.
"The geography of foreign trade, employment parameters, industry picture are changing, and completely new market prospects for small and medium-sized businesses are emerging," Putin pointed out. "The Russian fuel and energy complex is also undergoing profound changes. They affect all areas of work: extraction and processing of energy resources, service and logistics, interaction with foreign partners."
The president noted that there are reasons to believe that the volume of energy consumption in Russia will reach a new record this year.
Apart from that, Putin said that the EU countries are trying to completely abandon Russian energy resources, as a result of which their entire economies are stagnating.
"They [the EU] are now overpaying for supplies of oil, oil products, gas, and as a result, the EU economy is close to zero, and industrial production has been in the negative zone since this March," the head of state underlined.
Putin added that actions of Western countries have brought chaos to the global energy market, including the oil market, affecting the entire world economy.
"Actions of some of our colleagues, Western elites, have brought chaos to the global energy market, including the oil market, the negative consequences of such politicized steps affect the entire global economy, now this has to be corrected, and this, of course, has to be done by responsible market participants," Putin said at the plenary session of the Russian Energy Week.
The stability of the global energy market requires the interaction of main suppliers on open and transparent terms, as it is done within OPEC+, the president said, adding that this is why the group members are successfully coping with all challenges.
"Russia, as before, will make a significant contribution to balancing the global energy market, develop partnerships and cooperative ties with those countries that want and are interested in this," he said.
The president also touched upon nuclear industry, describing Russia's nuclear industry as having "no competitors abroad." According to him, the Russian nuclear company Rosatom is building 22 power units in other countries simultaneously.
Putin cited the construction of Russia's El Dabaa nuclear power plant (NPP) in Egypt, which is being ahead of schedule.
"The fourth power unit of El Dabaa NPP in Egypt is being constructed ahead of schedule. This is our flagship project on the African continent. But here we are not limited only to the construction of the plant. Here we are essentially creating an entire industry from scratch together with Egyptian specialists, our friends from Egypt," he said.
The leader added that Russia is not against participation of third countries in the construction of Russian NPPs abroad.
Palestine-Israel Escalation
The Russian president also addressed the escalating conflict between Palestine and Israel at the forum, noting that it is impossible to settle situation that led to violence without resolving fundamental political issues regarding creation of Palestinian state.
"Without resolving fundamental political issues, the main one of which is the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem, it is impossible to solve the problem in general," Putin said.
The leader explained that when Israel was created, there was also decision to establish an immediately sovereign Palestine, but this was never done.
"Moreover, part of the land that the Palestinians have always considered to be ancestrally Palestinian, it is occupied by Israel - at different times and in different ways, but mostly, of course, with the use of military force," the Russian president added.
In addition, as Putin noted, the United States neglected the mechanisms of settlement in the Arab-Israeli conflict zone and decided to regulate everything on its own, focusing on satisfying the material needs of people living on Palestinian territory.
"Settlement mechanisms have been established. But the United States has neglected these mechanisms over the past few years and decided to adjust everything on its own. It did not use these mechanisms. And in recent years it has staked on meeting the material needs of the population living in the Palestinian territories," the president remarked.
The US, the president continued, has tried to replace the solution of Palestine's fundamental problems with material handouts. Russia has always said that this would not be enough, Putin stressed.
Putin added that it is necessary to strive to minimize civilian casualties in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"It is unknown whether it will be possible to somehow calm the situation in the near future, but we must strive for this, because the expansion of the conflict zone can lead to dire consequences, by the way, including in the energy sector," the head of state concluded.
On Saturday, the Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise large-scale rocket attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip, forcing Israel to declare martial law and retaliate the next day.
The death toll in the Gaza Strip from Israeli attacks has reached 1,055, another 5,184 people have been injured, the Health Ministry of the Gaza Strip said on Wednesday.
The sixth version of the annual Russian Energy Week takes place in Moscow from October 11-13 and hosts high-ranking officials and representatives of leading energy companies from Russia, Turkey, Hungary, Iraq and other countries.
