MUNICH MIGHT COMMENCE NEW PHILOSOPHY
Karine Ter-Sahakyan
PanARMENIAN.Net
07.02.2009 GMT+04:00
Instead of the Helsinki Agreement, which no more reflects modern
entities and phenomena, Javier Solana suggested a new model.
Almost immediately after the World Economic Forum in Davos leaders of
the world countries met at the 45th Munich Security Conference. Both
of these meetings gain special significance on account of the world
economic and financial crisis. And if we also add to this the strained
relations between Russia and Europe because of the August war and
the Â"gas conflictÂ", Munich meetings acquire even greater value.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Opening the forum, Federal Minister of Foreign
Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier declared: "The window of history has
opened. The new US President offers new thinking on the whole spectrum
of disarmament and security policy. Russia has a new president too, who
belongs to the generation that is little influenced by the cold war."
Based on the already delivered speeches we can already draw some
conclusions. First, no one in Europe wants to come into conflict with
Russia, and not because of great fear or profound respect towards
her. The reason lies in Russian armaments, which even outdated, pose
a great threat to the whole world. Europe as well as the whole world
want a firm guarantee that Russian troops will not rush Â"to protect
their citizensÂ" as it happened in South Ossetia. That was why EU High
Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana
underlined in his speech that Europe should treat seriously Russia’s
suggestions on forming a new system of European security. Javier
Solana even proposed a new model instead of the Helsinki Agreement,
which no longer reflects modern entities and phenomena.
"The idea of ‘Helsinki 2’ would be difficult to materialize, but we
can suggest ‘Helsinki +’," he noted. "Cooperation between the EU and
Russia has been very positive recently. I hope that will continue and
be expanded to the financial crisis and climate change," Solana said.
In his turn, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer stated his
readiness to engage Russia in the discussions on anti-missile defense
system but added that he saw no possibility of a serious discussion
of such an important architecture, with Russia building bases inside
Georgia, a country that doesn’t want those bases. In his words, he
also supported the proposal of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev of
forming wider Euro-Atlantic security structures.
Russia poses no military threat either to the EU or to NATO, declared
French President Nikolas Sarkozy. "I don’t think the Russia of today
is a threat to us and we must recover our confidence towards Moscow,"
stated Sarkozy.
Russian Deputy Prime-Minister Sergey Ivanov noted that Russia would
give up the idea of installing "Iskander" missile systems in the
Kaliningrad region only if the United States would change her mind
about establishing the third position region of anti-missile defense in
Poland and the Czech Republic. "Russia has delayed the installment of
"Iskander" missiles in Kaliningrad until the United States establishes
the third position region in Europe. If the anti-missile defense
systems are not stationed in Poland and the Czech Republic, Russia
will abandon the plans of deploying missiles on the EU’s doorstep in
Kaliningrad," declared the RF Deputy Prime-Minister. Ivanov also urged
the USA to sign another treaty with Russia instead of the Intermediate
Nuclear Force Treaty (INF) and join efforts in combating nuclear
proliferation. He also noted that the US plans on basing anti-missile
defense systems in Europe are aimed at encircling Russia. "The third
position region is not just a combination of a dozen of antiballistic
missiles and radars. It is part of American strategic infrastructure
aimed to control Russia’s nuclear missile potential," declared Ivanov.
In a word, there is a colossal haggling going on, in which
theoretically not everybody can win: someone will have to sacrifice
something. But the new picture of the world is already being outlined:
it is becoming bipolar. The economic crisis played rather an important
role in this shift, but even irrespective of it, history shows that
long supremacy of a country in the end results in a collapse or even
in the complete loss of the leader.
Another central topic of discussion at the Forum will be the US
plans on expanding military presence in Afghanistan. According to
the already announced plan, the US government is determined to send
another 30 thousand soldiers to Afghanistan and counts on the support
of her allies, Germany in particular.
However, more than once representatives of the German government
have announced their reluctance to send additional military units
to Afghanistan. By the way, shortly before the conference Press
Secretary of German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that not in
the least this means end of negotiations.
And, of course, there is also the issue of Iranian nuclear program
to be discussed yet. "Germany is hoping for a diplomatic solution to
the conflict over Iran’s nuclear program but we are ready for tougher
sanctions if no progress is made. I expect the new U.S. administration
will make its approach clear to all of us in coming months. We are
ready to walk this path together," stated German Chancellor Angela
Merkel.
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