European Security Treaty Rejected

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NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said that he sees no need for a new security treaty, as proposed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.  This rebuff to the Kremlin’s calls for new defence arrangements in Europe may be seen as a setback for President Medvedev, the architect of the plan, or it may give him a chance to cause a split in Europe’s NATO ranks. Sarkozy and Merkel are known to be highly supportive of the plan.

 

After recent talks with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Rasmussen urged greater cooperation between NATO and Russia in Afghanistan, but showed no enthusiasm for Moscow’s treaty proposal. “I don’t see a need for new treaties or new legally binding documents because we do have a framework already,” he said at a news briefing in Moscow.“We have already a lot of documents, so my point of departure is: ‘I don’t see a need for new treaties.’ But let me reiterate, we are of course prepared to discuss the ideas in the right forum,” said Rasmussen.

He said the 56-member state Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was such a forum.President  Medvedev published his draft security pact in Moscow on November 29th. He intends it to replace NATO and other institutions, including the OSCE, and would restrict the ability of any country to use force unilaterally.

It was also the intention to extend European defence policy to include the nations of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, controlled by Moscow and described as "Warsaw Pact Lite".

Now, however, it has emerged that in Georgia, the scene of conflict between Russian and local forces last August, troops being trained by the US Marine Corps are to be placed directly under American command. In a program called the Georgia Deployment Program-International Security Assistance Force, or GDP-ISAF, Georgian infantry will be integrated into NATO operating structures during deployment in Afghanistan. The first deployments are scheduled for March 2010, and with follow-on deployments planned.

The situation in Georgia remains tense, with shots being exchanged on land and sea. Russia is extremely nervous about further NATO and EU expansion into former Soviet republics, and has effectively expelled western observers from the disputed enclaves of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The rejection of Medvedev's proposal, coupled with this limited Georgian integration into NATO, will ensure that east-west relations will end the year on a low.

www.cartwright.eu.com