European Security Treaty
First draft published by the Kremlin yesterday.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Photo by the Presidential Press and Information Office
President Medvedev's proposal for a new European Security Pact, intended to replace NATO in Europe, came a step closer to fruition this weekend. During the EU-Russia summit on November 14th he raised the matter, reminding delegates that Nicolas Sarkozy is firmly behind the proposal. Angela Merkel is also known to be supportive.
Yesterday the Kremlin released a draft of its treaty. One might have supposed that such an important article would have been produced after lengthy negotiations with potential signatories, but little more than one year after the idea was first put forward, the Kremlin has its treaty ready.
Article 2, paras 2 & 3, are of particular interest: no signatory may participate in any military action, or allow signatories to any other treaty it may be a party to to take action against, any other signatory. This basically means that no party, or its allies, may take any action against Russia.
This is the same Russia that routinely violates its obligations under international treaties. Its promises to the Council of Europe, its obligations to the OCSE, all are thrown to the wind as it launches troops at any small state that dares to question the Kremlin's authority over other sovereign states.
Under the terms of Article 7, para 2, the Kremlin could theoretically have demanded the participation of other nation's forces in its attack on Georgia in August 2008.
Article 10 clearly shows Russia's intention to bring EU and NATO forces under the same command umbrella as its own CSTO - often referred to as "Warsaw Pact Lite".
President Obama has yet to give the proposal anything other than a cursory nod of acknowledgement. However, he is keen to be seen to work well with Medvedev, and at a time when, quite frankly, Americans are fed-up with paying for Europe's defence, he may be more agreeable to the idea that his predecessor.
The full draft of the treaty can be found here:
http://eng.kremlin.ru/text/docs/2009/11/223072.shtml
Gary Cartwright's book Putin's Legacy:Russian policy and the new arms race is currently in production, and due for release in early December.
