Most of the rest of the world is a jungle, and the jungle could invade the garden

Most of the rest of the world (certainly not the USA) is a jungle.
Josep Borrell Fontelles said Europe was “a garden,” and the world “a jungle,” triggering charges of neocolonialism and racism just as the E.U. tries to drum up support in the developing world.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Naser Kanani, today described as colonialist and racist the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, by placing Europe as the center of the world.

Kanani pointed out that Borrell’s statements that ‘Europe is the garden of political freedom and economic prosperity in the world, while the rest of the world is the jungle’, come as a result of a colonial mentality.

The spokesman’s remarks come in response to the comment made by the EU representative during his speech at the European Diplomatic Academy in Brussels last week.

Kanani considered Borrell’s statements undiplomatic, racist and unacceptable, as they proclaim the West’s right to invade and occupy territories.
#borrell #diplomacy #ethos #europeanunion #prosperity #colonialism #west
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On Monday Mr. Borrell stood by his comments, insisting that he had been misunderstood.

He said that Europe was a privileged place to live and that his message to the aspiring diplomats was to cultivate relationships outside it, because it cannot be “an island in the world away from what was going on elsewhere.”

“I do not understand the interpretation that has been given to what I said, I certainly do not share the allegation that it is somehow imperialist, white supremacist or a retrograde message,” Mr. Borrell told reporters in Luxembourg on Monday.

Thursday’s speech circulated broadly on social media, a gift to Europe’s detractors. Among the first to seize on it was the Kremlin’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova.

“To continue the analogy, the European gardener is in a vegetative state,” she quipped on Telegram. “And now seriously. The ‘garden’ was built by Europe due to the barbaric attitude to the plundering of the ‘jungle.’ Borrell could not say it better: the most prosperous system created in Europe was nourished by its roots from the colonies, which it ruthlessly oppressed,” she added.
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The United Arab Emirates said late on Monday that it rejects a “racist statement” by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell at the inauguration of the new European Diplomatic Academy in Bruges, Belgium, calling his remarks “inappropriate and discriminatory,” UAE state news agency (WAM) reported.

The foreign ministry summoned the acting head of the mission at the EU delegation to the UAE. The ministry asked Borrell’s office to provide a written explanation of what is described as “hurtful comments,” WAM added.