Europe still divided over Russian security plans

Feb 8, 2009, 14:20 GMT

Munich - European leaders were divided on Saturday on how to react to Russian calls for a new security agreement in Europe, as they debated the issue at the Munich Security Conference.

But German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk agreed that the European Union and NATO must work together to create a new security alliance which goes beyond simple military means.

Sarkozy and Merkel called on the EU and NATO to discuss proposals made by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for a new security treaty outlawing war in Europe.

The West 'should accept (Medvedev's) offer in the framework of the European security and defence policy to explore more ways and means of cooperation with them,' Merkel said.

But Tusk was more cautious, insisting that Russia should first make its own geo-political intentions clear after its August invasion of Georgia.

'If someone says very unspecifically that we need peace in the world, and he's just left behind the Georgian adventure, then it's very difficult to understand what lies behind the concept of peace in the world,' he warned.

The Polish premier also insisted that NATO should give Georgia and Ukraine a clear path to membership of the alliance, and that his country was still keen to host parts of a US missile-defence system - two plans which have infuriated Russia.

'These countries should get to know a clear scenario for how they can approach NATO. Even if it's not going to be easy and it's not going to be fast, it should be tangible,' he said.

But Sarkozy insisted that the two countries should not be given a promise of membership until they have met NATO standards.

'I'm a friend of Georgia and Ukraine: all I'm saying is that their joining is so important for stability that we have to remind them of the rules that apply in a family. People always point to the rights that family members have, not the duties,' he said.

And he denied that Russia was a security threat to Europe, saying that the country had so many internal problems that it was inconceivable that it could threaten the West.

Despite their differences, the leaders agreed that the EU and NATO should work more closely together on security issues.

The two organizations should work on a new 'networked security' policy combining military, political and civilian means, Merkel told an audience including new US Vice-President Joe Biden.

But cooperation 'is not working in the way we would like it,' because of bilateral disputes between members such as Turkey (a NATO member) and Cyprus (an EU member), she said.

Sarkozy, who says that he wants to bring his country back into NATO's military system after 40 years outside it, insisted that the EU should strengthen its own defence policy.

'We need both NATO and a Europe of defence: if we strengthen the one, we will strengthen the other,' he said.

And Tusk said that NATO had to develop a 'new strategy' to confront the new security issues of the 21st century.

Earlier, top officials from the EU and NATO also called for the West to discuss the Russian proposals as long as they did not breach certain fundamental rules.

The proposals 'deserve to be taken seriously' and Europe and the United States 'should engage in this discussion,' EU foreign-policy chief Javier Solana said.

But the secretary general of NATO, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, ruled out such a discussion as long as Russia plans to build military bases in the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.