"Sovereignty, independence and new international relations are the key demands of our times and represent the main trend of the present epoch, despite the obstruction and last-ditch resistance of the imperialist and hegemonic forces," states Keith Bennett in a speech to an international seminar on the occasion of the 76th Anniversary of the Foundation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Sovereignty, independence and new international relations – key demands of our times

Speech to the Seminar on the occasion of the 76th Anniversary of the Foundation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea organized by the European Regional Society for the Study of the Juche Idea, the International Institute of the Juche Idea and the Korean Association of Social Scientists, and hosted by Bulgarian friends of Korea. Sofia, 9 September 2024.

Full text of the speech.

Some main points in the speech:

In the course of this speech, Keith Bennett presents a wide-ranging review of the progress of history in our times, showing that it fully confirms the profound analysis of our era made by Comrade Kim Il Sung.

The speech notes that countries such as Korea, China, Vietnam, Laos, Cuba and Venezuela have made the revolution and embarked on a socialist road imbued with their own national characteristics and sentiments. These countries also stand in the vanguard of the elaboration of a new type of international relations which has socialism at the core.

The speech addresses the current stage of the world peoples’ struggles for Sovereignty, independence and new international relations, noting that the Non-Aligned Movement and the Group of 77 Plus China, ASEAN in south east Asia, the League of Arab States, the African Union, the Caribbean Community, CELAC, UNASUR and ALBA in Latin America, and many others, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS cooperation mechanism, now expanded to BRICS Plus, with nine members at present and around 40 other countries having expressed varying degrees of interest in joining, have China and Russia at their heart, and all these regional or global bodies enable the people of the world to engage in dialogue and address the key issues facing humanity, without the meddling and interference of US-led imperialism.

The speech addresses the events surrounding the Russian Federation’s Special Military Operation to demilitarize and denazify the puppet regime in Ukraine, noting that, very nearly unanimously, the countries of the Global South, having learned bitter lessons from imperialism’s wars of aggression in the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Lebanon, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere over recent decades, rejected and refused the anti-Russian policy of sanctions. Indeed, Russia’s standing in the Global South has reached and even surpassed the prestige it enjoyed in the days of the Soviet Union.

The speech notes the increasing isolation of the United States resulting from its blatant hypocrisy and double standards regarding the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people, as seen in repeated votes in the United Nations, as well as in the recent recognition of the State of Palestine by such countries as Spain, Norway, Ireland and Slovenia.

The speech cites the standpoint of President Kim Il Sung calling on all those opposed to imperialism to unite; those who are less firm or vacillate in the struggle should be induced to become more positive in their standpoint, so that all anti-imperialist forces, whatever the level of their determination, can be united in the strongest possible anti-US united front. This remains, concludes the speech, a key, and completely correct, guideline for the struggle for sovereignty, independence and new international relations today, shining a light illuminating the path that humanity must follow towards a free and independent new world.

 

 

Text of the Speech.