Sarkozy Backs Russian Calls for Pan-European Security Pact
http://www.truthout.org:80/111508A
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.
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