Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met top EU officials yesterday at a summit soured by disputes ranging from security and energy issues to human rights.
Medvedev and the EU representatives were expected to lay the groundwork for negotiations on a wide-ranging Russia-EU cooperation agreement during their talks in the Siberian oil boomtown of Khanty-Mansiisk.
“We are expecting a frank dialogue and would like to give a new impulse to our relations and overcome existing problems,” Medvedev said.
The EU was represented by Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, whose country currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
Constructive
“We are very much looking forward to what can be a very productive and constructive summit,” Barroso said at the start of the talks.
Energy security topped the list. The EU wants Moscow to open its vast energy sector to investors, but the Kremlin firmly intends to maintain its control over Russia’s oil and gas riches and energy pipelines.
Moscow, for its part, has pushed for better access to European downstream energy assets and other markets.
“Russia remains a key energy supplier for the EU; the EU will remain Russia’s most important export market,” Barroso said. “For both of us, as producers and consumers, energy security is paramount. In this era of high energy prices this is a message our citizens understand only too well.”
The bloc’s trade chief, Peter Mandelson, said energy security could only be guaranteed if Russia joins the WTO. He said a wide-ranging economic treaty — within the framework of the new agreement — could not be completed while Russia remains unbound by WTO rules.
Russia, the only major country still outside the WTO, still faces major barriers to membership even after 14 years of negotiations to join the 152-member body, which sets the rules on global trade.
EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said yesterday the bloc wanted “to insert principles of transparency and non-discrimination” into the economic relationship.
Intentions
The summit gives the EU a chance to test the intentions of Medvedev, who was inaugurated early last month. While his predecessor and mentor, Vladimir Putin, rolled back many post-Soviet democratic reforms during his eight-year tenure, Medvedev has vowed to protect the rule of law, media freedom and human rights.
Skeptics in Russia and the West say Medvedev’s pledges are no more than rhetoric and expect him to toe the course of his predecessor, who retains clout as Russia’s prime minister. Putin was not attending the summit.
The EU wants Russia to commit to bolstering democratic reforms and preserving human rights as part of the new “strategic partnership” agreement it hopes to have in force by July 2009.
“These subjects will always be on the agenda,” Ferrero-Waldner said.
She said the EU wanted a bigger role in solving the so-called frozen conflict in Georgia, where the government is struggling to bring two separatist regions — Abkhazia and South Ossetia — back under central control. Russia maintains close ties with the regions.
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