Reuters AlertNet, UK
Nov 11 2004
Language shows EU-Russia gulf on rights, actions
11 Nov 2004 16:33:07 GMT
Source: Reuters
BRUSSELS, Nov 11 (Reuters) – A gulf between Russia and the European
Union over any EU role in Moscow’s backyard is likely to dominate
summit talks between Moscow and the bloc following its expansion to
Russian frontiers.
Wrangling over the wording of an EU document setting out a “joint
EU-Russia road map” for external security shows from the first
sentence the gap between them over human rights and conflicts in
ex-Soviet states such as Georgia and Azerbaijan.
The summit was originally scheduled for this week but Moscow asked at
the last minute for a postponement, saying it wanted to wait for the
EU’s new executive Commission to take office. It was rescheduled on
Thursday for Nov. 25.
Russia denies suggestions of a fundamental problem over ties with the
25-nation bloc, its largest trading partner.
But exchanges over a draft of the EU document, obtained by Reuters,
suggest otherwise.
One passage of the EU proposal sent to Moscow read:
“The EU and Russia share responsibility for an international order
based on effective multilateralism, notably the upholding and
developing of international law and the respect for democratic
principles and human rights.”
Russia sent an amended version back, deleting all references to
democracy or rights.
“The EU and Russia share common values and responsibility for an
international order based on effective multilateralism and
international law,” said the reply.
The two sides are seeking to build a new relationship based on four
“common spaces” — on the economy; justice and human rights;
education, science and culture; and external security.
EX-SOVIET FLASHPOINTS
The language on external security is causing the most problems, since
it refers to conflicts in ex-Soviet states like Moldova, Azerbaijan
and Georgia with which the EU wants to step up ties but which Moscow
sees as firmly in its backyard.
An EU line calling for “specific and result orientated cooperation to
resolve existing conflicts in Moldova and the Southern Caucasus” was
ruled out by Russia and changed to “working together to address
crisis situations with the aim of achieving concrete results.”
The EU language would, diplomats say, imply Russian recognition the
bloc had a role to play in ending the “frozen conflict” in Moldova,
where pro-Moscow rebels set up a ministate in the Dnestr region,
known to Russia as Pridnestrovie, in 1990.
It would also give the EU a role in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute
between Azerbaijan and Armenia, over an area populated by ethnic
Armenians but wholly within Azerbaijan. The area broke with Baku’s
rule as the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1980s.
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev called on the EU in May to be more
active in demanding the withdrawal of Armenian forces.
Russia is already alarmed by Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili,
who overthrew veteran leader Eduard Shevardnadze in a bloodless coup
last year and is moving fast to develop closer ties with the West and
trying to close Russian military bases.
Moscow supports two breakaway enclaves in Georgia, Abkhazia and South
Ossetia, which have been de facto independent of Tbilisi since civil
war following the Soviet collapse, and has no desire to see the EU
helping Saakashvili to win them back.
When the EU, in the EU-Russia road map, said one priority was
“promotion of security, stability, democracy and human rights in the
common neighbourhood,” the amended version came back: “promotion of
security and stability in the world.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress