Ardavan Amir-Aslani is an international business lawyer and geopolitical expert. He represents several states around the world. He has also acted as counsel to a number of countries in drafting their domestic laws on foreign investment, mining, securities, privatisations and Islamic finance.
In an interview with Le Cercle, he discussed geopolitical changes on the international scene in the context of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. In particular, Mr Amir-Aslani spoke of the global trend towards shifting the centres of power away from the Western bloc.
“Europe today is in decline on the international level. Europe today is downgraded in every aspect. Who do Africans care about today? It’s not France. It’s not Europe. Today, the ability to command respect has left European soil”.
Turning to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the French international law expert noted the obvious deterioration of the French army, which was unable to compete with the Russian army.
“In a war like Russia’s with Ukraine, the French army could only hold out for 80 km. A specialist [Jean-Dominique Merchet] says so. The French army today is under-equipped. They give out a few ‘Caesar’ guns, well that’s already 25% of the French capacities.”
As for Europe’s economic war against Russia, he believes that economic sanctions run counter to the strategic interests of European countries. Punitive measures against Moscow have only led to an economic crisis in the EU and the loss of its sovereignty vis-à-vis the United States.
“I would say that [European sanctions against Russia] are a case of following the lead, because there was a lot of resistance at the beginning. Germany was not in favour of this war, it did not see the point of a war that would quadruple the cost of energy, that would increase the price of wheat internationally by 30% to 50%.”
Finally, Ardavan Amir-Aslani highlighted the success of the BRICS, which have gone from strength to strength in recent years and are now in a position to compete with the American hegemony.
“It is the will of all these countries [of the BRICS] to challenge American hegemony. American hegemony, which comes first and foremost through the dollar. The United States considers that anyone who uses the dollar as a means of payment is subject to American law.”
