Germany asked Russia to withdraw troops in Transnistria
Date: 23-06-2010
Germany asked Russia to withdraw its troops from Transnistria in exchange for the promotion of president Dmitri Medvedev’s initiative concerning the Treaty on European Security , “Nezavisimaia gazeta” writes. Only after fulfilling this condition Europe will be ready to analyse with Moscow the security architecture on the continent, within the new Russia-EU committee for foreign policy matters at ministerial level.In case of progress in Transnistria matters experts foresee a great success for this structure, which may even replace Russia-NATO Council.But for the time being such a scenario is unlikely to happen. European experts and diplomats continue to debate the Russian-German idea on setting up a Russia-EU committee on foreign policy and security. Alexander Rarh, a member of the German Council for foreign policy, the program director for Russia , says the memorandum signed in this respect on 5 June by chancellor Angela Merkel and president Dmitri Medvedev could be interpreted as the EU answer to the Russian leader’s suggestion on the conclusion of a new European Security Treaty.
Rarh considers that, in fact, the Germans answered Moscow on behalf of Europe. “Let’s solve first the question of Russia’s military presence in Transnistria, for which the Treaty on conventional arms in Europe is not functioning and there is no confidence in the Black Sea area. After that we will decide on the terms of joint security architecture,” the German expert says.In his opinion Moscow is not likely to accept this compromise. “I’m afraid the idea will not last long,” he concluded.
Konstantin Kosaciov, the chairman of the state Duma committee for international relations declared for NG that, at present, there are no mechanisms in relations between Russia and Europe able to reduce the human factor to the minimum in favour of strategic interests.The deputy reminded that in order to settle the conflict in South Osetia in 2008 the then EU chairman, Nicolas Sarkozy had to get involved. “If the president of Estonia had been the EU chairman, then the situation would have evolved in a different direction,” Kosaciov said.
At the same time the Parliament is convinced Medvedev’s initiative referring to the collective security Treaty should not be conditioned by the Russian-German suggestion on setting up a Russia-EU committee.“There are two different things: the last Russian-German suggestion is meant to settle crisis situations. The mechanism can be used both for setting up a joint political reaction and for the adoption of practical peace keeping decisions. There is no other similar mechanism,” said the Russian deputy quoted by NG. (See also: http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20100621_germany_and_russia_move_closer?utm_source=GWeekly&ut)
