MOSCOW, July 17 (Chinese media) -- Russia earlier this week
issued a foreign policy document proposing a strategic partnership with the
United States and a collective security system across Europe.
But such a good-will gesture coincided with two
separate military exercises by the United States and Russia near Russia's
southern boarder, and analysts remain skeptical about whether the so called
Foreign Policy Concept could heal the lingering Russia-West
rifts.
RUSSIA-U.S. STRATEGIC
PARTNERSHIP
"It is necessary to switch over Russian-U.S.
relations to the state of strategic partnership, to overstep barriers of
strategic principles of the past," says the document posted Tuesday on the
Kremlin Web site.
Russia and the United States should "concentrate on
real threats, and where differences persist, to work on their settlement in the
spirit of mutual respect," says the paper ratified by President Dmitry Medvedev.
Moscow will work along with Washington in taking
confidence-building measures, ensuring transparency in space explorations,
anti-missile defense and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,
securing development of peaceful nuclear power, enhancing cooperation in
countering terrorism and other challenges, it says.
However, the often soft-spoken Medvedev Tuesday
slammed a U.S. proposal to deploy missile shield components in Central Europe,
which have soured bilateral ties since it was raised in early 2007.
"We will be forced to adequately react to this. Our
American and European partners have been warned," he said in a speech to Russian
ambassadors.
Also Tuesday, the United States and Georgia launched
a Pentagon-funded joint military exercise in the South Caucasus region, while
Russian troops were taking part in another drill near the border region.
Both Moscow and Washington have denied any connection
between the war games which involved some 1,000 U.S. troops near Georgia's
capital Tbilisi and 8,000 Russian troops.
Many analysts, however, believe that the military
exercises were held against the backdrop of a deteriorating relations between
Russia and the U.S.-backed Georgia that is seeking NATO
membership.
PAN-EUROPE SECURITY
TREATY
The policy guidelines, hardly diverged from the
previous ones during the years under Medvedev's predecessor Vladimir Putin, also
highlighted Russia's relations with its European partners.
Russia hopes to build an open and democratic
collective security and cooperation system across Europe, it says.
A unified Europe should be based on equal cooperation
among Russia, the European Union (EU) and the United States, it says.
Medvedev proposed in a Russian-EU summit in June an
all-European summit for preparing a pan-European security agreement, which is
seen as an effort to reduce the EU's security dependence on the United States.
But analysts say that such a deal is not likely to be
reached any time soon as Europe has been divided into an eastward-expanding
NATO-EU bloc, including Georgia and Ukraine, and the shrinking Russia-CIS
Collective Security Treaty zone.
"Is it a realistic approach? Not really. I find it
hard to imagine a magician-diplomat who could cobble together a security
agreement from this motley crew," said Vladimir Frolov, former diplomat and a
Moscow-based thinktank chief, in a comment on the Russia Profile.
Security concerns in Europe have especially
heightened due to the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo and the
U.S. anti-missile plans.
Medvedev Tuesday called Kosovo's independence, backed
by many nations, a "sad" event that violated international law, and said the
planned deployment of U.S. missile defense facilities in central Europe would
undermine security.
MULTILATERAL TIES
PRIORITY
In spite of the confrontations with the western
nations, Russia has repeatedly called for multilateral cooperation and reform of
international institutions to ensure global security.
"I am convinced that with the end of Cold War the
underlying reasons for most of bloc politics and bloc discipline simply
disappeared," Medvedev said Tuesday.
"It's absolutely essential to identify and resist the
attempt of national or group interests to ignore international law," said the
president who took power in May.
"The experience of recent years, especially in Iraq
and the Middle East, shows that today's global problems cannot be resolved
through the direct use of force," he said.
"We need reform of international institutions and a
strengthened role for the United Nations. This position of ours remains
unchanged," he said.
The Foreign Policy Concept also echoed such an idea
by slamming unilateralism and advocating multilateral cooperation.
The United Nations should play a core role in
adjusting international relations and coordinating policies, it says.
Russia will actively engage itself in the Group of
Eight, a club of industrialized countries, Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and other international
organizations, it says.
Russia will also enhance cooperation with emerging
economies such as China, India and Brazil, it adds.
Only by doing so, can Russia seek to address its
thorny issues with the west and regain its influence on the world arena,
observers say.
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