Some very interesting changes are occurring:
This was clear at the Lisbon summit, where Russian President Dmitri Medvedev was treated as the guest of honor, and NATO went further than ever to placate Russia’s concerns over the alliance. It invited Russia to help build a missile-defense umbrella over Europe, a system that Russia has always seen as a threat to its arsenals. And in the new “strategic concept” that NATO adopted on Nov. 20 — its first in 10 years — the alliance declared for the first time that “NATO is not a threat to Russia.”
‘NATO is not a threat to Russia’…that certainly is the end of an era. The end of one and the beginning of another. Without getting into a flurry of links and articles, I think that this statement is directly related to the move by Russia to forge closer economic ties to the EU, Free Trade Zone sized ties. However, to deal with NATO is to obviously deal with the United States. I would think that Russia has finished most of its unpleasant business in her outlying areas like Georgia and Chechnya and has settled on this current incarnation of Russia and this current sphere of influence. Remember, NATO cut ties to Russia when Russia invaded Georgia, oh, you don’t remember that…well, its forgotten now in Brussels so don’t feel bad. NATO needs Russia to be part of missile defense as a front line for the rest of Europe. In exchange, Russia can help NATO in operations in Afghanistan, leverage in Iran, and transit through Russia into the current theater of Afghanistan and beyond, and maybe in the future other areas of operation.
What has come of the meting in Lisbon:
“The fact that we are talking to Russia about common threats and the chance to cooperate with Russia on missile defense is an extremely important step,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at the summit. “That could be proof that the Cold War has finally come to an end.”
The Chancellor is not speaking in hyperbole here. These are very real and very positive steps. There is no reason at all that Russia and NATO should not be working in concert. I wonder though, what are the ‘common threats’ that the Chancellor was speaking of? Some of the security pages I read speak of the side meetings that Russia has had with Germany, France, and others. Not in this meeting were the US and the UK. The continental press are claiming that Russia wants an Anglo-free trade zone. Now really, does that make any sense? The US and UK represent a staggering percentage of the globe’s market. I dont for a minute think that the Russians are that foolish to cut out that much capital.
After the ‘cease and desist’ order that the American electorate gave to the Obama administration and the Democrats, countries everywhere were also sent a clear message, America is moving to the right. This move will signal more aggressive foreign policy in the future.
To further twist the negotiations and future plans, Putin runs for the Presidency again in 2012. It’s Medvedev versus Putin. Putin is more a nationalist, Medvedev seeks closer ties with the West. Or so they are portrayed that way. Medvedev is willing to discuss allowing NATO missile defense equipment/personnel in Russia to protect Western Europe (a large step for a Russian) and to protect western Russia. Putin, well, who knows what he will do when he wins the Presidency again. I am sure he will publicly distrust this agreement, what he does privately/diplomatically will be seen.
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As an aside, I did find this rather interesting while researching in the writing of this post:
Turkey, which had seemed to present a potential sticking point, dropped its objections to a common missile defense system when it was satisfied that no country, particularly Iran, would be named as a principal threat. Turkey also wanted money to buy anti-missile components.
Tags: Missile Defense, NATO, Russia
