PanARMENIAN.Net
EU could pursue encompassing action program on Karabakh conflict
09.02.2007 16:52 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `Recent statements by the European Union display a
more active policy in the South Caucasus. The European Union has the
reputation of an "honest broker" and as having a wide scope of
instruments for achieving peace and stability. Conversion of
statements into an active security policy could be established by
forming a military mission to be deployed in Abkhazia and South
Ossetia, not to replace the Russian peacekeepers, but as an additional
asset to promote stability and reconstruction. Such a mission would be
beneficial for the stature of the European Union, to prove that it is
capable of conducting crisis management missions. Furthermore, this
would adhere to the call of the Georgian government to introduce
Western peacekeepers in the disputed areas,’ says the report titled
”Current Geostrategy in the South Caucasus” issued by Lieutenant
Colonel Dr. Marcel de Haas, the Senior Research Fellow on military
doctrine, strategy, and security policy of NATO, EU, Russia and CIS,
at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael in
The Hague.
Russia may oppose a competitive peacekeeping force, but it will have a
difficult time openly disapproving of such an EU mission since it
wants to maintain good relations with the European body and also
because it has no grounds to feel threatened by EU peacekeepers. A
possible EU military mission to the separatist areas should be part of
a larger EU operation, using its social and economic instruments as
well for stability and reconstruction. Such an approach would
strengthen a normal economic build-up and thus be detrimental toward
the largely illegal economic structures of the current leadership of
Abkhazia and South Ossetia. With such an encompassing program, the
separatist regions could gradually develop into stable societies,
which would also be beneficial for their position toward the Georgian
government.
Likewise, taking into account the fact that the OSCE’s long-time
negotiations to reach a settlement on Nagorno Karabakh have been in
vain, the European Union could also pursue an encompassing action
program on this conflict. Here, as well, the deployment of an EU
military mission, together with social and economic measures to
encourage development of state and society, could bring a political
solution closer. Moreover, a stabilized South Caucasus would also be
advantageous for structural energy supplies from Central Asia via the
South Caucasus to Europe. Therefore, political and economic
objectives could be united,’ the report says.