Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko has expressed concerns about the erosion of international norms and the growing tendency of some powerful countries to unilaterally impose their own rules.
In an interview with China Media Group (CMG), Sonko, who was in Tianjin for the 2025 Summer Davos, criticized US tariff hikes on its trade partners, emphasizing that certain nations have historically asserted their influence by establishing rules that primarily serve their own interests.
However, he noted that these countries now seek to break away from these rules because the world is now shifting towards a more balanced order.
“Increasingly, the concepts of international order, international rules, and the international community are losing their significance because we have certain countries, due to their power, that unilaterally assume power at every moment in history and set the rules for themselves.
But it was these countries that created these rules because they felt powerful and thought that this would benefit them at the expense of the rest of the world. Today, things are tending to balance out. They want to break away from these rules or impose different rules,” said Sonko. He underscored the significance of initiatives from the Global South, particularly within the BRICS, a group of emerging economies, as vital steps toward fostering a more equitable, multilateral world.
“I think that today, what is being done in the Global South, and at the BRICS level, is quite important, and such work must continue for a much more balanced, multilateral world, and for a continent like Africa, we must take advantage of this situation,” said Sonko.
The three-day 2025 Summer Davos Forum, held in north China’s Tianjin Municipality in late June, attracted over 1,700 influential figures from more than 90 countries and regions to discuss how entrepreneurship and emerging technologies can unlock dynamic and resilient economies.
Ousmane Sonko a rising star in Senegal
Across the African continent there is injustice and oppression of one by another in the quest to assume or retain power. This is the case in Senegal.
If Mandela’s quote is anything to go by, then the extraordinary circumstances of Senegal have produced a rising star.
Every given election is a moment in the making of history, either for the better or for worse and some candidates stand out like a shining jewel. In Senegal, there was no candidate who sparked the interest of so many and stolen their hearts as a 49-year-old man who the earlier regime was determined to remove from the ballot. His name is Ousmane Sonko, a former tax inspector turned politician. A husband and father of six.
In 2014, the African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethic and Fraternity (PASTEF) was established by Sonko, who went on to serve as a member of the National Assembly from 2017 to 2022. And a year before the presidential elections of 2019, in which Ousmane was determined to participate, he published a book titled ‘Solutions’, which served as his manifesto. (Interestingly, among his suggested solutions to the problems of Senegal is the replacement of the franc with a domestic currency.)
Senegal is one of the few democratic states in West Africa with no history of military coups. It is imperative that it keeps that exemplary posture for the region and the continent.
Additional Source: Mail & Guardian
