EU-Russia summit falls short of increased trust

 2009-05-23 10:56:47  

    PRAGUE, May 22 (Xinhua) --

The latest European Union (EU)-Russia summit has not radically increased mutual trust mainly due to the EU Eastern Partnership project involving six post-Soviet countries and disputes on Russia's gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine, political scientists here said Friday.

    Martin Larys took issue with the view of Czech President Vaclav Klaus, who chaired the two-day EU-Russian summit ending Friday in Russia's Khabarovsk on behalf of the EU presidency.

    Klaus told journalists after the summit that the talks "increased our mutual trust, which is very much needed and very important."

    Another political scientist Petr Just said the summit showed Russia's gas supplies to Europe remained a key question and the main source of disputes between the EU and Russia.

    Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the summit warned the EU against the possibility of a new dispute with Ukraine over gas supplies if Ukraine was unable to pay Russia for gas.

    Medvedev suggested the EU would only be able to ensure reliable gas supplies from Russia to Europe via Ukraine by lending money to Ukraine to help it pay for gas.

    "The EU will now have more motives to look for alternative sources, which would lower its dependence on Russia," Just said.

    According to Larys, an expert on Russia, Moscow harbored the suspicion that the EU's Eastern Partnership project was aimed at the implementation of its geo-political ambitions, and through the project the EU intended to increase its political and economic influence in these countries and weaken Moscow's influence in some of them.

    "This mainly concerns Belarus, which is trying to balance very wisely between Europe and Russia," Larys said, adding the EU and Russia considerably differed in their views on energy security.

    According to Larys, Medvedev's statements are a logical step by which Moscow seeks to secure itself against the repetition of a crisis similar to the cuts in Russian gas supplies via Ukraine this winter.

    Russia wants to secure the EU adopts a joint course against the transit countries' inability to pay for gas to Russia.

    Klaus in Khabarovsk had a bilateral meeting with Medvedev, at which Czech-Russian relations were discussed.

    Klaus said after the meeting he was convinced that no dramatic problems existed between the two countries. The dispute about the planned stationing of a U.S. missile defense radar base on Czech soil was no longer on the agenda.

    "This matter is not on the agenda of the day, and it is not the major current topic... either in bilateral relations or in the worldwide situation with the new U.S. administration. Since it does not top the agenda, it has definitely not played such a role as during my visit to Russia two years ago," Klaus told reporters.

    "Relations between the Czech Republic and Russia, compared to Russia's relations with some other new EU member states, really cannot be considered dramatic because the main reason of disputes, the American radar, was postponed by the new U.S. administration of Barrack Obama. It cannot be considered one of the main priorities of U.S. foreign policy," Larys said.

    Former Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said the radar was a marginal problem for Russia from the military point of view and that Russia was only seeking to "mark its territory."

Editor: Xiong Tong