Schiller Institute’s Open Letter to Pope Francis (from Political and Social Leaders): Support Call for Immediate Peace Negotiations

His Holiness, Pope Francis
Apostolic Palace
00120 Vatican City
December 20, 2022

Your Holiness,

Greetings from the grouping of Political and Social Leaders of the World to Stop the Danger of Nuclear War, initiated by the Schiller Institute in Germany.

We have met on three occasions to discuss the impending danger of Nuclear War and Global Armageddon, resulting from the war between Ukraine and Russia, with a view to taking whatever action necessary to stop the War and to bring Peace. On November 17, 2022, our group issued a Declaration to Stop the Threat of Nuclear War, signed by current and former legislators of countries from Latin America, Europe, the Caribbean, Africa and the US.

In that declaration, we highlighted Your Holiness’ call for a negotiated and peaceful solution. We further welcome Your Holiness’ offer of the Vatican as a possible neutral ground for Peace Talks – without any preconditions – between Russia and Ukraine. Our group wishes to support this initiative in any way we can, including gathering together all who wish for peace and the prevention of Nuclear War.

We note that others in Europe and the US have also offered venues for the Russian and Ukrainian leaderships to negotiate Peace. We believe it is urgent to unify all such efforts into a globe-spanning movement in order to bring resolution to this conflict, taking into consideration the valid security interests of all parties.

In that spirit, we hereby sign this letter to indicate that support, and call on other political and social leaders around the world, regardless of differences in ideology or religious faith, to add their signatures as well.

We intend to convene a Fourth Seminar of Political and Social Leaders of the World to Stop the Danger of Nuclear War in early 2023 to further this push for Peace and to stop the danger of Nuclear War, and we also extend an invitation to a representative from the Vatican to attend.

For there to be negotiations, there must be support in the West from a variety of forces, both strategic realists and traditional peace groups, as well as from a broad array of political and social leaders, who should all collaborate for this common end, in the mutual benefit of all nations.

The Russians are open to such negotiations with no preconditions, as indicated by the straightforward coverage by the Russian News Agency, TASS, of the Vatican offer, recently reiterated by the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Parolin:
https://www.sb.by/en/vatican-believes-it-could-become-negotiating-platform-to-settle-ukraine-conflict.html

There is an increasing view in Russia, however, as indicated in the recent statement by former Russian President Dmitri Medvedev that there is nobody in the West with whom to negotiate, a view which we have to change:
https://larouchepub.com/pr/2022/20221226_medvedev.html

Such open-ended negotiations to end the war in Ukraine opens the door to further discussions and negotiations for a new security and development architecture, in order to address and resolve the deeper issues behind this war.

For a discussion of how to resolve these deeper issues, please see the Ten Principles of a New Security and Development Architecture, as proposed by Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche, modelled on the principles of the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, which ended the Religious Wars of Europe:

Ten Principles of a New International Security and Development Architecture
https://schillerinstitute.com/blog/2022/11/30/ten-principles-of-a-new-international-security-and-development-architecture/

This was an interview of Helga Zepp-LaRouche on Russian TV with leading news host and commentator Victor Soloviev about her proposed Ten Principles, on the basis of discussion of a new security and development architecture:

Soloviev Live interviews Helga Zepp-LaRouche on Ten Principles
https://schillerinstitute.com/blog/2022/12/08/soloviev-live-interviews-helga-zepp-larouche-on-ten-principles/

Boundless Ocean of Politics has received this letter from Schiller Institute. The Schiller Institute is a Germany-based political and economic think tank founded by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, with stated members in 50 countries.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das