The New York Times
BERLIN — Ahead of a summit meeting Monday in Deauville, France, between the leaders of Germany, Russia and France, Moscow is asking for regular participation in the European Union committee that is responsible for setting the bloc’s foreign policy.
“We would like Russia and the E.U. to be able to take joint decisions,” Vladimir Chizhov, Moscow’s ambassador to the European Union, said in a telephone interview with the International Herald Tribune over the weekend from Brussels. “I don’t expect to be sitting at every session of the political and security committee, but there should be some mechanism that would enable us to take joint steps.”
Such arrangements would mark a major change in E.U.-Russia relations, which have been held back because of divisions inside the 27-member bloc over how to deal with Russia. They might also go some way to meet Russia’s calls for a new security architecture, a move aimed at gaining a greater say in strategic issues in Europe.
“We want our relationship with the E.U. through the political and security committee to be formalized, to be more efficient,” Mr. Chizhov said.
It seems Germany, at least, is prepared to go down that path.
When Chancellor Angela Merkel met President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia in June near Berlin, both leaders proposed the establishment of a new entity called the E.U.-Russia Political and Security Committee. The new committee would consist of the foreign ministers from Russia and the E.U. states, as well as Catherine Ashton of Britain, the E.U. foreign policy chief.
The proposal, which Mr. Chizhov said was initiated by Mrs. Merkel, leader of the conservative Christian Democrats, came as a jolt to other nations in the bloc.
“Until recently, the German government tended to focus on the economic relationship with Russia and pursue a more pragmatic policy, unlike the Social Democrats, who included a more ideological component in their approach to Russia,” said Susan Stewart, a Russian analyst at the Brussels office of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. “The focus on security certainly surprised many of Germany’s E.U. partners.”
Analysts say Mrs. Merkel has realized that the European Union needs a security relationship with Russia because strengthening the NATO-Russia Council, which is supposed to discuss such issues, is going nowhere. Also, Mrs. Merkel has established a close relationship with Mr. Medvedev, unlike his predecessor and the current prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin, with whom Mrs. Merkel had a difficult relationship, according to German and Russia diplomats.
Russia, however, is expected to give something in return for gaining access to E.U. institutions.
Mrs. Merkel told Mr. Medvedev in June that Germany wanted Russia to help resolve the continuing conflict in Transnistria, a source of instability on Europe’s south-eastern borders, according to Chancellery and Foreign Ministry officials.
Transnistria, which is part of Moldova, a neighbor of the E.U. member Romania, is ruled by a pro-Russian nationalist movement that has been seeking independence from Moldova. More than 1,100 Russian troops are based in the region “for security reasons,” Mr. Chizhov said. He acknowledged that Transnistria was “regarded as a pilot project” for better relations with the European Union.
Analysts say Germany is now pursuing a two-pronged strategy with Russia.
“I think there are two issues at play,” Ms. Stewart said. “One is that Germany is prepared to push for a dialogue on Medvedev’s security proposals on the E.U. level. But the other is that before that happens, Russia should make a gesture regarding Transistria. If there was some progress there, then it would send a signal to the E.U. that Russia could act on this conflict.”
The dynamics of such a relationship between Russia and the European Union will be discussed Monday and Tuesday in Deauville between Mrs. Merkel, Mr. Medvedev and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France.
“This summit is important because France and Germany are considered the locomotive of European integration,” Mr. Chizhov said. Mr. Sarkozy is also eager to anchor Russia closer to Europe, according to French diplomats.
Security analysts, however, said the key to better relations between the European Union and Russia rested with Germany, Russia’s closest political and economic partner inside the bloc.
The gathering is the first time a trilateral summit meeting has taken place since Mrs. Merkel took office in 2005, after defeating Gerhard Schröder, a Social Democrat.
“Mrs. Merkel stopped holding those summits because of how they were perceived,” said Alexander Rahr, a Russian expert at the German Council for Foreign Relations think tank in Berlin.
Along with the former President Jacques Chirac of France and Mr. Putin, Mr Schröder had held regular trilateral meetings. Together these three leaders led the opposition — in what was then a bitterly divided Europe — against the U.S-led invasion of Iraq.
The meetings took place without consulting other E.U. member states and were criticized by several East European countries, particularly Poland and the Baltic states. They feared that their security could be undermined if France, Germany and Russia revived a policy of spheres of influence. As a result, relations between Poland and Germany deteriorated.
Since Mrs. Merkel’s election, relations have greatly improved. More significantly, Poland’s own relations with Russia have been restored, which is why the revival of the summit meetings between France, Germany and Russia has not upset Poland.
“Our relationship with Germany is now so much better,” said Janusz Reiter, president of the Center for International Relations in Warsaw and former Polish ambassador to Germany and the United States.
But Mr. Chizhov, Russia’s ambassador to the European Union, said establishing a close link between Brussels and Moscow would not take place overnight.
“Let’s see what happens in Deauville,” he said.
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