World diamond industry: The west blasts and loses

Amidst the endeavours of the United States and its associates to force the countries of the Global Majority to abandon the trade and economic algorithms that are beyond control of the collective West, a unique multilateral mechanism for regulating the diamond trade, the Kimberley Process, has proven to be resilient to the neo-colonial ambitions of Washington and its satellites. The Westerners have to resort to unilateral restrictive measures that lead to their own financial and reputational losses and give rise to serious dissatisfaction on the part of representatives of the world diamond industry.

In November 2024, the next plenary meeting of the working bodies of the Kimberley Process (KP), which is an extraordinary mechanism of industry regulation that ensures the transparent functioning of the natural diamond market, will take place. For almost three years now, this format has been under massive politicized pressure from the Western countries that strive for taking over the world diamond industry under the guise of anti-Russian hysteria. In the meantime, the Kimberley Process has become an illustrative example of the efficient resistance to the hypocritical attempts of the collective West to undermine the mechanisms of international cooperation that are out of its control.

For more than 20 years of its existence, the participants[1] in the Kimberley Process have managed to reduce the share of so-called "conflict diamonds"[2] in global sales from 15 to 1 percent. This contributed to a significant increase in social and economic stability and security in producing countries in Africa. The KP's success can be attributed to the constructive cooperation of the interested states, industry and civil society aimed at ensuring the most effective compliance with the basic requirements of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), a universally recognized set of rules governing the global trade in natural diamonds. Until recently, the Kimberley Process has remained a model multilateral platform for the efficient consensus-based decision-making despite sporadic efforts by Western countries to bring their “value paradigms” to the KP.

The situation drastically changed in 2022, when the G7 countries adopted a strategy of deliberate and aggressive politicization of the widest possible range of international organisations and formats, including economic and industry-specific ones. The Kimberley Process was no exception. Our opponents found unacceptable the existence of a multilateral mechanism that operated on the principles of pluralism, consensus and equality of parties and was not under the direct or indirect control of the "progressive" West. The way the Westerners have exploited the "Ukrainian" issue to implement their geostrategic interests in a specific sector of the global economy is both illustrative and instructive. This is nothing less than an attempt to carry out an epic scam to reshape the natural diamond market, the annual turnover of which has exceeded 12 billion US dollars in 2023.

The key point here is the fact that the current situation in Ukraine, regardless of differing assessments given, does not pertain at all to the terms of reference of the Kimberley Process. The obsessive attempts by our opponents to put this issue on the KP agenda initially rested upon the one and only argument that Ukraine^[3], on the territory of which the Westerners themselves provoked a large-scale security crisis, was a formal participant in the KP (while the overall activity of Ukraine within the KP for over two decades of its existence has been confined to anti-Russian sentiments of recent years; Kiev has never participated in the substantive work of the Process, and its diamond trade barely fits into the statistical spread).

When Westerners set out to bring the Ukrainian issue to the KP platform at all costs, they took it not only as a chance to propagate their frenzied anti-Russian sentiments but also as a starting point to gradually subjugate the entire industry to the detriment of the mining and processing countries.

Of course, the "partners" could not help but try to turn the Kimberley Process into a tool to oppress their geopolitical opponents and put pressure on sovereign countries. To this end, a group of Western states has consistently attempted to distort the terms of reference as well as the working principles of the KP by attributing it the functions of various United Nations bodies (i.e. the issues of war and peace, sovereignty and other).

Representatives of the "concerned public" are also being actively involved; this role is assigned to the so-called Civil Society Coalition which is on the West’s payroll and subsists by the KP. The Ukrainian issue has suddenly become the cornerstone for this entity, while other "conflict" matters that are potentially sensitive for the West are being emphatically ignored. In the absence of any objective complaints against Russia, the remarks of the bogus "human rights advocates" and those of their curators essentially boil down to particularly biased politicized accusations.

Unfair attacks against Belarus are yet another characteristic example of Western discriminatory practices. Our opponents are blatantly blocking Minsk's bid for chairmanship in the Kimberley Process on purely political grounds, even though Belarus is not only an exemplary participant of the KP, but also an active contributor (unlike Ukraine, by the way) to the implementation of the current agenda of the Process, particularly in the area of digitalization of natural diamond certificates. Besides, except for Minsk, there are no volunteers to assume chairmanship in 2025.

Having faced rejection of their outright provocative tactics by the overwhelming majority of the KP participants, primarily by African countries, the Westerners have set out to sabotage the activities of the Process. This culminated at the previous KP Plenary in November 2023, when no agreement was reached on the Final Communiqué, which traditionally covers the main outcomes and achievements of the multilateral cooperation in the global diamond industry in the preceding year, captures the agreements reached and serves as a basis for drafting the next UN General Assembly resolution on the role of diamonds in fuelling conflict.

The discussion of issues pertinent to the KP at the United Nations venue in 2022‑2024 has also been tainted by undisguised politicization and provocations by the Western countries. During the consultations on draft annual resolutions the Westerners systematically tried to introduce amendments to the instruments that deliberately played down the achievements of the KP and challenged its effectiveness. Under the pretext of some "unprecedented challenges", they tried to impose on the UN Member States the narrative of a necessity to reform the foundations of the Process with an emphasis on giving it a pronounced political dimension, including with regard to the definition of "conflict diamonds". They promoted broad modifications that posed a risk of substituting or blatantly distorting the essence of the KP work. In draft UN GA resolutions the Western countries sought to diminish the importance of the fundamental document of the KP, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), obviously intending to eventually replace its provisions with their own agenda.

Russia, together with its constructively minded partners within the KP, has so far managed to get the most egregious proposals of the Western countries removed; however, the relevant UN GA resolutions adopted in recent years are rather the result of a forced compromise, and hardly contribute to solving the urgent tasks of the KP.

Having failed to turn the Kimberley Process into yet another leverage over sovereign states, the Westerners undertook to substitute it with a unilateral discriminatory mechanism of the Group of Seven. Starting from 1 January 2024, the G7 countries have been gradually imposing restrictions on the import of rough and polished diamonds of Russian origin, which have now been extended to cover all Russian diamonds of 0.5 carat and above. It is highly revealing that in order to ensure the compliance with the restrictions, all the diamonds entering the Western markets are required to be certified in a single centre in Antwerp.[4] Bona fide market participants are offhandedly forced to transport diamonds to Belgium for inspection or risk losing the opportunity to sell them in the G7 countries. Obviously, this will increase operating costs many times over, which is why this measure has been openly criticized by third countries, especially African producing countries. The Westerners attempted to "secure" the key supply channels of diamonds to the world market, but having met an unequivocal resistance from other industry actors, they had to backtrack on implementing their dubious schemes and ineptly tried to propose some form of "privileged" participation to major African diamond producing countries. Moreover, having provoked a credibility crisis, they faced a steady decline in the sales of diamonds passing through the Antwerp World Diamond Centre.

That being said, the "sanctions" imposed against Russian (in fact, African) products were nothing but politically motivated actions aimed at limiting market competition and free trade, and also a clear indication of the Westerners' commitment to ruining the existing balanced and transparent format of the world diamond industry. In essence, it is a case of Western consumer countries launching a unilateral arbitrary mechanism regulating supply chains in parallel with the KP. It is fraught with absolutely negative implications for all market participants, namely the need for a system-wide reshaping of the supply chains and the effective business models due to regulatory distortions as well as a significant decrease in the profits of the producers, diamond cutters and traders owing to the risk of sanctions and associated costs and, consequently, increased prices of the end product for consumers and declining sales.

It is noteworthy that the restrictive measures imposed by Westerners on Russian diamond industry are in direct contradiction with the basic guidelines of the Kimberley Process, which, in turn, casts doubt on their status as bona fide KP participants – according to the founding documents[5]^,[6],[7],[8], the Process aims to hinder the fuelling of conflicts by the illicit trade in rough diamonds and to do its utmost to promote the legitimate trade in diamonds, on which the well-being and socio-economic development of those involved in the diamond industry directly depend. Therefore, the anti-Russian restrictive measures are not only contrary to the rules of operation, but also to the spirit of the KP.

The Kimberley Process was launched in 2002 on the initiative of African states, primarily for their own benefit, in order to create the conditions for social and economic well-being, political stability and security in diamond-producing regions. The Kimberley Process has provided the world diamond industry with a unique format for constructive cooperation aimed at identifying and promoting the interests of all its participants.

By opposing themselves to the essence and objectives of the KP, the Westerners have put in jeopardy all the gains of the past two decades. These are critically important for the Global South, in particular, for the African states, as well as for industrial and commercial centres in Asia and the Middle East. What is more, it is obvious that the Group of Seven, led by the United States, has done this deliberately, since a possible escalation of security threats and the hotbeds of social tension in the mining and processing countries will inevitably undermine their resistance to the political and economic pressure of the "golden billion". Under the dictate of Western consumer nations, mining and processing countries risk losing significant profits from their main industries concerned in the medium and long term. Moreover, giving in to the West's intention to essentially single-handedly determine the parameters of regulating the world diamond industry will certainly lead to the imposition of similar control mechanisms on other sectors of the global economy.

At present, the industry is experiencing losses and disorientation as a result of the subversive actions of Western countries. The prospects of sustainable development are being deliberately compromised. In the context of the core objectives of the Kimberley Process, none of this helps combat conflict diamonds and only makes the situation worse.

At the same time, because of the short planning horizon of their destructive actions, the Western nations have seen their restrictions turn against them –
the diamond centre in Antwerp is rapidly losing its market share and suffering losses, the prospects of retaining its status as a leading trading platform are nebulous at best. In general, Western countries as diamond trading partners are increasingly losing the confidence of mining and processing nations, not to mention the further damage to their reputations with respect to industry regulation.

Anti-Russian provocations by the US and its allies in the Kimberley Process have made other actors in the world diamond industry take seriously their sovereign national interests in the context of geopolitical insinuations by the collective West. The producing nations are fully aware that their well-being is directly dependent on an open and fair competition environment, efficient supply chains and business models, and the availability of a legitimate multilateral mechanism for the regulation of the world diamond industry, which is the Kimberley Process.

Unable to think beyond the templates of their neo-colonial aspirations, Westerners have created the conditions for their gradual marginalization on the market due to the inevitable diversification of alternative supply chains and the development of new cooperation mechanisms. In the face of the incessant provocations of the G7, the overwhelming majority of countries are confidently demonstrating their commitment to the Kimberley Process and their dedication to developing productive and mutually beneficial cooperation outside the constraints of the imposed Western domination. Obviously, the countries of the Global South are not willing to leave at the mercy of the Westerners their natural riches, upon the availability and efficient use of which their social and economic well-being as well as sovereign development directly dependent.

[1] KP participant countries as of 2024: Angola, Armenia, Australia, Bangladesh, Belarus, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, China, Congo (Democratic Republic of), Congo (Republic of), Côte d’Ivoire, Eswatini, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Korea (Republic of), Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Mozambique, Namibia, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Qatar, Russia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zimbabwe as well as the EU countries;

[2] Diamonds illegally mined by rebel groups to finance their subversive activities (Conflict diamonds means rough diamonds used by rebel movements or their allies to finance conflict aimed at undermining legitimate governments, as described in relevant United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions insofar as they remain in effect, or in other similar UNSC resolutions which may be adopted in the future, and as understood and recognized in United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 55/56, or in other similar UNGA resolutions which may be adopted in future);

[3] Ukraine does not produce diamonds, but houses the Kristall Vinnitsa Diamond Plant the country inherited from the USSR;

[4] As of now, the existing technologies do not allow to objectively verify the origin of diamonds, therefore, in practical terms, this measure is not implemented, the supplier to the G7 countries indicates the country of origin on a declarative basis;

[5] Para 4 of the UN Security Council Resolution 1459 (2003) highlights the "importance of conflict prevention through efforts to hinder the fuelling of conflicts by illicit trade in rough diamonds, which is the very nature of the Kimberley Process". There are only three operative paragraphs regarding this matter: "The Security Council [...] strongly supports the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme" and "further welcomes the voluntary system of industry self-regulation", and "stresses that the widest possible participation in the KPCS is essential".

[6] The first UN GA resolution on the role of diamonds in fuelling conflict (A/Res/55/56) states that "… measures (to address the problem of conflict diamonds) should be effective and pragmatic, consistent with international law, including relevant trade provisions and commitments, and should not impede the current legitimate trade in diamonds or impose an undue burden on Governments or industry […] and not hinder the development of the diamond industry";

[7] The Interlaken Declaration of 5 November 2022 adopted the KPCS "1. We adopt the international certification scheme for rough diamonds … entitled: "Kimberley Process Certification Scheme" (OP1). The document provides that the KPCS shall be consistent with international trade rules "3. We will ensure that measures taken to implement the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme will be consistent with international trade rules" (ОР3). Furthermore, the KPCS is defined as an ongoing international process (OP5);

[8] According to the Certification scheme for conflict diamonds, "international certification scheme for rough diamonds, based on national laws and practices and meeting internationally agreed minimum standards, will be the most effective system by which the problem of conflict diamonds could be addressed". (Preamble, paragraph 10).

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