Trump seeks North-South cooperation
The “Dealmaker in Chief” strikes again in Saudi Arabia and Qatar
South-South cooperation has been a principle of the leading nations of the Global South since the Bandung Conference of 1955. They have with growing unity put forth the notion that the nations of the Global South and East must develop mutually beneficial trade among themselves, as a necessary strategy for overcoming unjust global economic structures, imposed by European colonial domination of the world from 1492 to 1914, and which persist today as the basic structures of the neocolonial world-system, promoting and sustaining global inequality and underdevelopment in vast regions of the world. The leading nations of the Global South have maintained that South-South cooperation is necessary for economic development, which is the most fundamental of all human rights.
But the nations of the Global South have never denied the need for North-South cooperation as a complement to South-South cooperation. The 2006 Declaration of Havana, for example, approved unanimously by the 118 member States of the Non-Aligned Movement, endorsed South-South cooperation as a complement to North-South cooperation. And at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference on April 21, 2022, Xi Jinping maintained that the human community must give priority to investment in scientific and technological innovations that drive economic growth, in response to North-South economic inequality. “We should pay due attention to the pressing needs of developing countries and advance practical cooperation in such key areas as poverty reduction, food security, development financing and industrialization, in a bid to address uneven and inadequate development.”
“The Bandung Spirit lives: Assassinated in New Delhi in 1983, born again in Havana in 2006,” April 22, 2025
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The need for North-South cooperation, seen from the long view
Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, South-South cooperation has been advancing in its implementation, and it has fueled the economic ascent of China and some of the nations of the Global South, particularly the nations of BRICS. But North-South cooperation remains a necessary component of the productive advance of humanity, because the Western economies, even though in relative decline, remain among the most technologically advanced sectors of the world-economy.
The ultimate resolution of the multifaceted problems provoked by European colonial domination of the world will not be attained by the circumvention of the West by the Global South. Rather, the resolution of the problem of colonialism will occur as the South appropriates, step by step, Western advances in science and technology, applying them to the productive needs of the Global South, as defined and prioritized by the South.
The appropriation by the South of the technological advancements made possible by Western colonial domination of the South would constitute a Hegelian synthesis in the material world. This material synthesis was partially grasped in the historical materialism of Marx, in which class conflicts, unfolding in history, drive technological development and human progress. In accordance with this view, North-South cooperation can be seen as the last stage of colonialism, pushing the problem of modern European colonialism to its resolution in a post-colonial stage characterized by the sovereign equality of nations, in which all nations have control over their natural resources and have mutually beneficial trade with other nations.
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Enter Donald Trump
Trump arrives on the world scene with an implicit proposal for North-South cooperation. However, inasmuch as the Trump team and the MAGA movement do not have consciousness of the political and historical perspective of the Global South, Trump does not propose in these terms.
Trump declares that he wants to make deals, and if any nation does not want to make deals that are in accordance with US interests, then tariffs and possibly economic sanctions will be applied. This approach comes across to many intellectuals and leaders in the Global South as a new form of imperialism.
To be sure, Trump’s hard-headed business approach has its coercive element. Nevertheless, businessmen and businesswomen understand that the best way to make a deal is to come up with an idea that is not only beneficial to yourself but also to others. In practice, therefore, Trump is seeking to move US policy beyond imperialism, even though the policy is not expressed in these terms.
However, not seeing beyond appearances, many leftists in the world see Trump and the MAGA movement as contributing to a rise of fascism, xenophobia, racism, and a new form of imperialism in the world. I maintain that this is an incorrect interpretation of the MAGA phenomenon.
The MAGA movement lacks persistent anti-imperialist consciousness, and it therefore does not have the ideological capacity to present its trade proposals in the terminology of North-South cooperation. But it is in practice moving toward mutually beneficial trade, except with respect to Latin America, which it perceives in an outdated form as the backyard of the USA. The practical anti-imperialist policy of the Trump47 administration was on display in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
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Saudi Arabia and Qatar encounter Donald Trump
In the relation between the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during the 1950s and 1960s, the Kingdom provided oil, and the USA provided military and political support for Saudi Arabia. In that era, the Saudi royal family paid little attention to the long-term interest of the nation of Saudi Arabia in using oil revenues to diversify its national economy and to promote socioeconomic development. It adopted an accommodationist policy with respect to the neocolonial world-system, standing in opposition to Naserism and national liberation projects in the region. During the 1970s and 1980s, the Kingdom was active in promoting a purely personal form of Islam, thus contributing to the undermining of the Nasserist national liberation project in the region.
But the Arab world has experienced ideological transformations during the first quarter of the twenty-first century. The Western powers are in decline, and subordinate accommodation to the West has less benefits. At the same time, it has become increasingly evident that dependence on the sale of crude oil is not a viable strategy in the long term. In this context, Saudi Arabia and other Arab States have turned to the stimulation of socioeconomic development through investment in the diversification of their economies and mutually beneficial trade with other nations, including China.
“China and the Arab world: The land of the Prophet embraces the wisdom of the East,” December 13, 2022
On May 13, 2025, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, President Donald Trump expressed a vision for the future of the Middle East which is based in an understanding of the new reality in the Arab world and which, at the same time, criticized the US political establishment for its previous interventionism.