Sarkozy backs Russian calls for pan-European security pact
* Ian Traynor in Brussels and Luke Harding in Moscow
* guardian.co.
* The Guardian, Saturday November 15 2008
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France joined Russia in condemning the
Pentagon's plans to install missile defence bases in central Europe
yesterday and backed President Dmitri Medvedev's previously ignored
calls for a new pan-European security pact.
Both presidents concluded a Russia-EU summit, in Nice in the south of
France, with an agreement to convene a major international conference
next summer at which the Americans, Russians and the 27 countries of the
EU should come up with a blueprint for new post-cold war "security
architecture" in Europe.
The call for such a pact has been Medvedev's central foreign policy
message since he succeeded Vladimir Putin as president earlier this
year. Medvedev has called for the new deal in several keynote speeches
but has been snubbed by western leaders until Sarkozy delivered a
characteristic surprise yesterday, appearing to hijack the subject.
Sarkozy said: "We could meet in mid-2009 to lay the foundations of what
could possibly be a future pan-European security system."
The Russians see such a deal as a way of halting Nato enlargement and
stopping the controversial US missile defence projects in Poland and the
Czech Republic. While western European leaders are lukewarm about the
Pentagon project and president-elect Barack Obama has yet to reveal his
policies, Sarkozy went further yesterday, branding the project a setback
for European security.
"Deployment of a missile defence system would bring nothing to security
in Europe. It would complicate things," said the French leader, who
currently chairs the EU. As he attacked the plan, Czech and Polish
ministers met in Prague to affirm their support for the installations
and send a signal to the Obama administration, pleading for it to go
ahead.
"I'm 100 per cent sure that Obama won't kill missile defence," Alexandr
Vondra, the Czech deputy prime minister, told the Guardian. "The
European pillar of missile defence is in the interests of everyone who
wants to keep Nato strong."
The French alignment with Russian aims will upset pro-US leaders in
western and eastern Europe, but will enjoy support in Germany and Italy,
which are eager to draw Russia in as a partner despite the recent
invasion of Georgia.
Yesterday's summit ordered the resumptions of negotiations on a new
strategic pact governing relations between Russia and Europe - talks
that the EU called off in protest at Russia's invasion of Georgia in
August.
In September the Europeans set Moscow an ultimatum for re-opening the
talks, demanding that Russian troop positions and numbers be returned to
the pre-conflict levels. Russia has ignored the European terms. But
yesterday's summit glossed over that.
"It's as if the military intervention in Georgia never happened. The EU
is sending a dangerous signal of weakness," said David Clark, chair of
the Russia Foundation, who was an adviser to the former British foreign
secretary Robin Cook.
http://www.guardian
european-security/
Saturday, 15 November 2008
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