 |
| |
WEEKLY
SECTIONS |
 |
|
 |
| EU-Russia talks to restart at summit |
|
|
|
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
MOSCOW: US sanctions on Russia’s state arms exporter are short-sighted and will not have a significant impact on its sales, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday.
The US State Department last week imposed sanctions on firms in China and Russia for alleged sales of sensitive technology that could help Iran, North Korea and Syria develop weapons of mass destruction or missile systems. One of the firms on the list was Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport.
‘I consider such sanctions as short-sighted,’ Medvedev told a government commission overseeing Russia’s arms trade.
‘It is unscrupulous competition, simply an attempt to close doors for the supplier and the main thing is that for us this decision can hardly be felt,’ he added.
The United States has previously expressed concerns about Russia’s plans to expand arms sales to US foes Iran, Syria and Venezuela. Russian leaders say they only sell defensive weapons and complain that the global arms trade is overpoliticised.
‘We ... will sell arms and military equipment exclusively to maintain the defence potential of our partners,’ Medvedev said.
He repeated Kremlin complaints that the West and some of its ex-Soviet allies like Ukraine were selling offensive weapons to Georgia, encouraging the Caucasus state to take on Moscow in armed conflict.
Russia in August repelled Tbilisi’s attempt to retake control of the breakaway region of South Ossetia and its forces went on to control parts of Georgian territory for a time.
Defying the Western condemnation, Moscow has recognised South Ossetia and another breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia as independent states.
‘Plans to re-arm this regime with additional weapons are under way,’ Medvedev said. ‘We will not forget this and will take this into account in our practical policies.’
Arms exports is one of a few sectors where Russian products are competitive worldwide. Medvedev said that a portfolio of Russian arms export contracts now exceeds $30 billion.
‘This is especially important now when a major financial crisis is unfolding,’ Medvedev said.
Meanwhile, the European Union plans to resume talks with Russia on a new partnership accord at an EU-Russia summit on November 14, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Tuesday.
‘I want to underline the EU-Russian partnership talks were never suspended, they were simply delayed,’ Kouchner told journalists. Negotiations on the pact were frozen earlier this year after Russia’s war with Georgia in August.
The French minister said a timeline for the next round of negotiations would be set at the summit in Nice, ‘unless there is a surprise between then and now.’
Kouchner and EU foreign policy Chief Javier Solana met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in St Petersburg within the framework of an EU-Russia meeting on Tuesday.
In an interview with business daily Kommersant published that day, Kouchner called a resumption of relations ‘inevitable.’
On September 1, the EU broke off talks on a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with Russia over that country’s failure to comply with a ceasefire accord in Georgia brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who also currently holds the rotating EU presidency. EU officials were also riled when Russia failed to heed demands to withdraw its troops from Georgia. The PCA governs the EU’s relations with its largest neighbour and energy supplier.
Kouchner and Solana added that they would seek Moscow’s cooperation in an international investigation into Russia’s five-day war with Georgia and announced the commission would be headed by Swiss expert.
‘A woman from Switzerland has been appointed the chair of the commission,’ Kouchner said on Russia’s Vesti-24 television.
Kouchner helped broker the ceasefire deal and led Western condemnation when Russia sent troops into Georgia to thwart Tbilisi’s attempt to take back control of the Russian-backed separatist region of South Ossetia.
Kouchner said he refused to assign blame for starting the war in Georgia. But he noted that Russia had been geared up for a fight with Georgia.
‘Russia was unequivocally prepared,’ he said in Kommersant. ‘Russia’s troops magically appeared just at border at the right time.’
He added there had been a real danger that Russia’s military might stage a coup in Georgia. He also reiterated fears that Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula could turn into a hot spot, with Russia harbouring designs and fanning tensions in the predominantly ethnic-Russian region.
|
|
|
| Back
| Send
this story to Friend | Print
Version |
|
|
|
ISSN 1563-9479 
