Russia to propose pan-European security pact (by PHILIPPA RUNNER)

Individual European countries should sign up to a legally-binding security pact that includes Russia in a new structure over-arching the EU and NATO, Russian diplomats will propose at a meeting of NATO ambassadors in Brussels on Monday (28 July). 

The pact would be negotiated at a special international forum convened by Russia and could embrace emerging powers Brazil and India, Central Asian states and existing international security alliances such as the EU, NATO, the OSCE, the CIS and the CSTO.

"We do not expect immediate reaction on the part of our western partners, or booing or, on the contrary, applause," he said, with western analysts arguing the proposed Russian set-up would weaken NATO by subjecting it to external vetoes.

Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev outlined his ideas on the pact in two major speeches in recent weeks, but European reaction has been muted so far, with the NATO-Russia Council meeting on Monday to be the first formal debate on the scheme.

Speaking to his ambassadors in Moscow on 15 July, the president said "a new Treaty on European Security" would address "flaws in the architecture of European security" and the "need to create in the Euro-Atlantic area a truly open and collective security system."

Talking to business leaders in Berlin on 5 June, he said "Atlanticism as a single basis for security has exhausted itself. We must at the present time discuss [the concept of] a single Euro-Atlantic space from Vancouver to Vladivostok."

A recent Kremlin policy paper, the 7,000-word long "Foreign Policy Concept," suggests Russia wants to play a major role on the world stage and is prepared to take unilateral action, leveraging its oil and gas resources, if the west does not take note.

"Russia exerts substantial influence on the formation of the new architecture of international relations," the text says, adding it will "use all the economic leverage and resources at its disposal…for the protection of its national interests."

Source: Euobserver
http://euobserver.com/9/26552?print=1