4th November 2010
Russia Increasingly Euro-Friendly
Mark Hanson
In the Russian President’s dreams, there will be a soon to be realised re-alignment of security and defence arrangements for Europe.
Dmitry Medvedev has already been courting European nations on the area of a new, pan-European, security structure, and has made overtures to Serbia, which itself has ambitions of joining the EU.
The president of Russia is also seeking greater co-operation with Nato, and as part of this has re-opened bi-lateral talks with the US. Yet it is Europe where Russia’s ambitions lie, and in other areas of policy Moscow is seeking to sideline the Americans and create a Eurasian defence initiative.
To this backdrop comes news that Medvedev will be attending the Nato summit in Lisbon this month and that there are behind-the-scenes discussions on possible Russian involvement in Afghanistan.
Although there is no talk of Russian troops entering the Afghan war, there are moves to bring Russian expertise and supply routes on to the table. The Soviet Union was severely bloodied by its occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980’s.
Russia is seeking that the Lisbon summit will provide for a new era of Russian-Nato co-operation. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Nato secretary-general, said: "The summit can mark a new start in the relationship between Nato and Russia...We will hopefully agree on a broad range of areas in which we can develop practical co-operation on Afghanistan, counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics."
Russia, spanning a huge landmass and being part of both geographical Asia and Europe, could make for a powerful ally, and greatly further European ambitions. Many EU nations are less keen on the US than others. It seems that if Russia were to become more integrated in Europe, politically and militarily, the US could soon find itself being less influential in the European theatre.
