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OSCE Ignores Russian Troop, Missile Proposals
Russian arguments on the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty and U.S. missile defense system in Eastern Europe again failed to convince the West. At the annual OSCE security conference in Vienna that ended yesterday, seen as a rehearsal for the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush on July 1-2, Russian arguments were not even discussed.
In spite of the failure to reach agreement last week at the conference of CFE member states called by Russia, OSCE officials expressed their openness to dialog before the OSCE conference began. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko, who headed the delegation to the OSCE conference, expressed cautious optimism about the conference, saying “Arms control is a trademark of the OSCE; there are no other organizations in Europe that could take on that role.”
Former Polish president Alexander Kwasniewski set the tone of the conference with his opening speech, where he stated that “the suspiciousness and rhetoric of Cold War times will get us nowhere.” Although he did not mention Russia, his point was clear. Gruskho's speech about the need for transparency in Russian-Western relations clearly failed to convince his audience. The Russian delegation was the only delegation that provided no means of contact with the press. Three of its 12 members were FSB agents.
On June 25, NATO General Secretary Jaap de Hoop Scheffer arrives in St. Petersburg on June 25 to mark the tenth anniversary of the establishment of relations between NATO and Russia. He will be met there only by Federation Council speaker Sergey Mironov. No representatives of the presidential administration, Foreign Ministry or Defense Ministry will see him. At the end of last week, Russian presidential aide Igor Shuvalov and Pentagon head Robert Gates both stated that the presidential summit in Kennebunkport is likely to result in specific agreements.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 21, 2007
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