In the past week, Russian president Dmitri Medvedv has busied himself extensively with international affairs. In addition to lobbying the E.U. for more concrete collaboration, he spent several days with leaders of both France and Germany on retreat in Deauxville and promised to attend the meeting of NATO discussing a proposed missile shield.As Russia struggles to revamp its relations with Europe, it has become clear that the EU does not have a unified foreign relations policy strong enough to deal with the emerging Federation. Several issues important to Russia, such as economic agreements and visa-free passage for its citizens to Western European nations, are making no progress with the EU as a whole (though Sarkozy of France recently commented that he expected the visa issue to be resolved by 2025). In light of this, Russia returned to the small-group approach.
For this was not the first time that Russia, France, and Germany in particular have met. The last time was a meeting of mutual disapproval in regard to the American invasion of Iraq. This time, diplomats assure Washington, there was no need for the U.S. to be concerned. Main topics of discussion included security and commercial partnerships - German companies in particular seem eager to encourage modernization in Russia, and Moscow is glad of the help. The three leaders - Medvedev, Sarkozy, and Merkel - emerged from their two-day conference united and optimistic about future relations.
In addition, Medvedev has accepted an invitation to be part of NATO missile shield discussions - though without committing to the idea of blind cooperation. In this as with the EU, Russia insists on a clarified process for including Russian input on decisions made - in other words, Moscow wants in on what's going on in the west.
Three-way analysis from the BBC:
From the New York Times, about Russia and the E.U.:
From the Moscow Times:
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