.
Seriously, this deserves a cover page story, not a small break!
Sven Ortmann
"Mr Medvedev called for "a new pan-European security treaty which could be joined by all nations" and suggested that next year's summit could also be attended by Nato and the Russian-led Commonwealth of Independent States."(Financial Times, November 15th)
Seriously, this deserves a cover page story, not a small break!
Sven Ortmann
It might deserve more attention if if weren't for the serious possibility that all that's going on is the same old effort by Moscow to leverage the European members of NATO away from that organizatoin and away from the relationship with the United States. The real test of Russian seriousness will come when they have to start offering details on their proposal.
ReplyDeleteThe Chinese reaction during the South Ossetian War (no support because 'we have minorities as well') could be understood as an important signal from Beijing.
ReplyDeleteIt might signal that Russia cannot expect to seriously ally with the PRC.
The current Indian-Russian anti-piracy cooperation proposals from Delhi could be understood as the opposite- or maybe not.
Either way; Russia's security would be best-served with a European alliance and it's not unreasonable to think about a pan-European security treaty à la enlarged WEU.
The Americans are strongly working on alienating the Europeans (or did so for about six years at least), there's no real need for additional Russian impetus to create cracks in the NATO.