Russian concept of the European security
During the last ten years Russia has dramatically changed its public image and now it doesn’t look like a “poor cousin” that humbly awaits his turn in the European reception room anymore.
The “upgrading” model of the state progress, proclaimed by Dmitry Medvedev, inevitably leads to the increasing role of Russia in a new global society.
As far back as in June, 2008, during the visit to Berlin Russian President introduced his idea of the European security system — legally obliging treaty that is to link all the countries of the Old Continent. In August of the same year Sergey Lavrov used to talk about it at the UN General Assembly.
Pan-European conference is to become the first step towards the realization of the Russian initiative — the USA and Canada were also invited to take part in it (by analogy of Helsinki conference, 1975). During the international conference at Evian Dmitry Medvedev has voiced the principles, the European security concept is to be based upon.
Principle of three “no” has turned out to be the most contradictive for the West: no — to provision of your own security for the account of the other countries, no — to the actions that weaken the unity of the shared security space, undertaken within the framework of the military alliances and coalitions; and no — to the development of the military alliances, whose actions may entail the disadvantageous consequences for the rest of the European security community members. Another Russian postulate also caused certain apprehends among the European politicians — the one stipulating that no individual state or international organization may have exclusive rights for maintaining peace and stability in Europe. Official reaction to Medvedev’s proposal was exceptionally cautious. At the same time, we still can recognize some differences in the positions of our European partners behind the bare and evasive wordings of the European foreign policy ministers. At the present moment, it is the position of Spain that seems to be the most significant — its Prime Minister Zapatero was one of the few European leaders that straightforward supported the Russian initiative. Spanish position gains certain sense considering the fact that on the 1st of January, 2010 this country took the chairmanship over the European Union. In 2010 the first international visit of Miguel Moratinos, Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister, fell on Moscow, where on the 12th of January he met with the Russian Foreign Affairs Minister — at the press-conference that followed the meeting he said:
“We hope that in the first half of 2010, during the Spanish chairmanship, we’ll reach progress in quite a number of issues, certainly including the negotiations regarding the new basic agreement, four common spaces, transition to the visa-free regime, consolidation of the energetic dialogue and cooperation. Being the EU chairman, Spain obliges itself to prepare the summit that will take place on the 30th of May here, in Russia and start working in the different groups so this summit conference would crown with the certain, long-range results”.
French position was much more roundabout — French President Nicolas Sarcozy has offered us the OSCE to be the discussion ground for the Russian initiatives, knowing that this organization has long ago turned into the irresponsible talking shop. It is known to be incapable of making decision of any kind. Other leading members of the European Union countries, such as Great Britain and Germany, have made a theatrical pause and prefer to bide their time until the course of events will become clearer.
Sharply negative attitude towards the proposal of the Russian President emerged in the countries of the Eastern and Central Europe that used to be parts of the Warsaw Treaty Organization in the past. Having suffered from the anti-Russian phobias, these former allies of the USSR still cannot come to believe that Russia is not going to send the troops to occupy their territory or to cut off oil and gas. Understanding that there’s a suggestion to decrease the role of the USA and NATO in the Russian initiatives concerning the new European security system — which they perceive to be a threat for them — they put the criticism of the Russian initiatives into the mouths of their experts. It seems that the official representatives of their foreign policy bodies lack the courage to openly deny the initiative of Dmitry Medvedev, let alone the leaders of these states. “Special” relationship between Russia, Germany, France and some other Western-European countries — based on the mutually beneficial economic projects (including the energetic ones) — also causes irritation of our former allies. Besides that, voters of these countries are simply tired of the anti-Russian rhetoric, that’s why during the pre-election period every inveterate Pole Russophobe is trying to demonstrate the improvement of the relations with Moscow, hoping for the increase in his ratings. On the threshold of the upcoming 2010 elections, even such ardent Russophobe as the effective President of Poland Lech Kaczyński — who hasn’t made a single visit to Moscow during his presidentship — has said, having put these words into the mouth of his Chancellery Chief, that he would “favorably consider the invitation to attend the celebration of the 65th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War on the 9th of May, 2010”.
Chinese view at the European security
Chinese publicists Yu Maofeng and Lu Jingli, staff writers of the “Xinhua” agency, offer quite interesting analysis of the Russian concept of European security treaty, which was published at the www.chinaview.cn web-site under the name “Strategic considerations behind Russian proposal for new European security treaty”. Chinese authors believe that signing of the new pact would be beneficial to the security of Russia and Europe at large, but there is a long way to go before the United States and its European allies agree to the treaty since the parties' security interests differ dramatically. Chinese believe the dramatic discrepancies of their security interests to be the reason for that. Xinhua analysts mark out three main reasons to be the incentives for the new concept of a European security:
1. NATO military facilities that have been deployed near Russian borders and the announced U. S. plans to place the elements of a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, Western support of the Ukrainian and Georgian "Color Revolutions" — all this was perceived by Russia as a squeeze of its traditional sphere of influence and a threat to its national security.
2. Russian desire to become the full-fledged member of the European security system as long as the Warsaw Treaty Organization was dismissed, while OSCE and the United Nations lost their significance.
3. Build-up of the Russian significance at the foreign policy arena, its hopes to become a part of the new multilateral world order and play a critical role on the international arena. Russia desires its role to be correspondent with its increased economic, military and political potential.
Chinese analysts mark out NATO’s wish to kick out the consideration of the Russian initiatives to the amorphous and unauthoritative structures like OSCE, but despite these trends, they still predict success to these plans, although talking about them in the long term prospect.
Certainly, particular interest of China to the proposals of Russian authorities was caused by President Dmitry Medvedev’s words that “the Agreement provides the place for every state of the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian region in it — having stretched "from Vancouver to Vladivostok”, i.e. for members of NATO, European Union, United Nations Organization, participants of the Collective security treaty and the OSCE members. It’s rather clear that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which wasn’t called in this case — we should remind that China is an active member of this organization — would also be willing to obtain the right of vote in the security matters of this huge region. This, in turn, would have reflected the increased role of China in the world
Conclusion
It’s undoubtful that D. Medvedev’s initiative is just a first step towards the creation of a completely new European security system. Decision-making process, based on the Russian initiative would be long and uneasy, but the very statement of the question made Europeans think about the future of the Old Continent — it would be impossible to secure its safety without Russian help. Striking example of that is a history with Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe which didn’t come to an end even by now.
Russia faces the objectives to become the equal in rights partner of the Europeans in the primary, vitally important matters of every country — matters of security, to bring the undivided power of NATO — which has replaced the UN and the OSCE — to an end, to obtain an opportunity to influence the decision-making process in Europe up to the degree that corresponds with the increased role of Russia in the world. It is going to create the mechanism of making the decisions — analogous to the one the UN Security Council — that has established a solid reputation of the world order stabilizer.
Our European partners — dissatisfied by the exceptionally active and not always positive role of the USA in the European affairs — cannot but understand that. We just have to drop a hint to them, saying that for us the price of this matter is every bit as high as for them and we are ready and willing to walk through our part of the road to sign the new agreement. In this case Europe will be unable to resist the temptation to establish new safe order on the continent and get a renewed and predictable partner at the Eastern border of the European Union.
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