Address by Ambassador Vladimir CHIZHOV at the Fourth Cyprus Summit – “Economist” Conference (Nicosia, March 17, 2011)
Session "International Cooperation for Security and Stability - Europe's role and challenges"
Distinguished Conference participants,
The current representative forum is dedicated to a key issue of today -International Cooperation for Security and Stability. I was asked to talk in this context about Europe's role and challenges.
The choice of this topic is not a tribute to fashion or political expediency. As never before, the modern world demonstrates its dynamics and interconnection. Almost every aspect of modern life is subject to change. We are witnessing rapidly evolving economic potentials, landscape of global markets, balances of political influence and changing paradigm of interaction between states and their organizations.
Hence, Europe - in a comprehensive sense of the word - faces new threats and challenges.
The list of these challenges is unfortunately long and well-known, as they are common for all, be it challenges to competitive ability or to integration processes and mechanisms in Europe - in EU, CIS and other formats.
In this situation life dictates the need to combine our resources and capabilities. One can respond efficiently to these threats and challenges only through broadest cooperation. We should coordinate our efforts, abandoning bloc mentality and confrontational approaches. The scale of the challenges suggests that we need to pursue a positive agenda, making full use of specific European advantages, to which previous generations have contributed a lot.
The question arises how can our position be maintained in a globalized world? It is well known how strong our competitors are and what comparative advantages they possess. Take, for example, the socially oriented model of European market economy. One of its major prerequisites is the importance of combining economic interests with the necessary level of social protection. But this does not raise the capacity of markets - rather quite the contrary. So, while Europe bravely and proudly bears the burden of a multi-faceted system of social benefits, in the US the length of annual leave still averages two weeks and in China people had not been aware of old age pensions until recently.
Otherwise, cutting-edge technology, high level of economic integration and well-developed trade links are among the major contributors to economic growth in Europe. Even with the US dollar faring low against the euro and with China successfully sustaining enviable growth rates, it is still Germany that continues to be the world's number one exporter. And India being the largest producer of pharmaceuticals worldwide, it is still Europe that is ahead in terms of scientific research in the field.
The task of finding joint answers to common challenges dictates harmonization of relations between states based on convergence and interpenetration of economies and cultures, uniting research and technological capabilities throughout a common space of Greater Europe.
That is precisely the essence of Russia-EU Partnership for Modernization currently implemented along two tracks - multilaterally, with the EU as such, and in bilateral formats with individual EU member states. We suggest that all partners take a closer look at Russia's substantial capacities in science and technology, energy, transport and resources.
For us comprehensive modernization of the country, diversification of the economy and its transition to an innovative, high-tech model of development is a key challenge. It is by no means a one-way street, Russia itself having a lot to offer to its partners - space technologies, advances in medical and computer science, a whole new world of nanotechnologies, just to name a few.
President Dmitry Medvedev has repeatedly emphasized that Russia today is seeking to become a country of new opportunities open for partnerships with anyone willing to work together.
The Russian vision of the concept of modernization goes beyond economics. Social stability, reliability of civil society institutions - these are also ingredients that will boost the credibility of Russia as a fast-developing modern state. Vigorous efforts are underway to reform the judicial system, improve the work of law-enforcement agencies and combat corruption.
Work on the modernization of Russia largely coincides with EU efforts to implement the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty and the collective economic strategy of the EU. Therefore, the Partnership for Modernization is a central element of convergence between Russia and the European Union. We are, in fact, tackling similar, and often the same problems, moving in one direction and, of course, we look forward to sharing experience and expertise, ideas and opinions.
Dear colleagues,
The political situation in the world remains complicated, ambiguous, even confusing at times. Today's Europe is still not free of hotbeds of instability and zones where one feels security vacuum almost on a daily basis. Latest developments in some regions adjacent to Europe - and to Cyprus in particular -and mixed, putting it mildly, reactions to them confirm that the global security architecture is shaky and cannot effectively cope with challenges of a globalized world. It may seem strange, but certain political circles still appear to believe in the possibility of a swift and "natural" transposition of a uniform pattern of democracy across the globe, without taking into account historical, cultural and social differences and having no idea how to react to real consequences of this process getting out of control. Facebook and Twitter may be attractive, but they are certainly not a panacea for everything. Neither are some existing security structures inherited from the Cold War period.
Globalization is an evolutionary process which challenges and changes customary political patterns. We actually have two options of response: either modernize the global security architecture, starting with the Euro-Atlantic region, or wait until reality corrects it in its own spontaneous way. The very fact that today's NATO is much more about Afghanistan than stability in the Euro-Atlantic region shows the obsolescence of the concept of NATO-centrism. The host country of this conference knows it very well.
At this point I will dare to say that EU-centrism is not much more helpful in this regard. Of course, we do not equate the NATO with the EU. We consider integration in the framework of the European Union, including its enlargement, as a regional dimension of globalization. The problem is that the slightest notion of dominating Europe is turning the EU into a "Fortress Europe" and leading it to self-isolation. But an EU- or NATO-driven continent of Europe cannot by definition be a stable and secure place. European culture in a broad sense of the concept, including political thinking, is based on inclusiveness and mutual respect. It is with this approach in mind that we foster our strategic partnership with the EU. The recent financial crisis revealed - with all evidence - to what extent we are interconnected and interdependent. For example, the monetary policy of the EU has direct impact on exchange rates in Russia and stability of our own currency.
We are fully aware that old and new challenges in the security sphere in Europe cannot be solved without a bona fide cooperation between Russia and the EU, with all due respect to existing achievements, formats and historical backgrounds. Let me turn again to the latest developments in North Africa, which have shown limits of EU's capacity to deal with security issues on its own, even in a region traditionally very close to the EU and particularly some of its member states. That does not mean that the EU cannot or should not play its role there. That only means that one single actor, no matter how determined he may be, cannot alone solve security problems of systemic character.
Unfortunately, problems of this kind in Europe are accruing. Protracted conflicts, including in the post-Soviet space and Western Balkans; Georgian aggression against South Ossetia; unwillingness of individual European states to recognize basic principles of the European order; destabilization in Europe's Southern neighbourhood - all these events testify the "ill health" of Euro-Atlantic security."
How to remedy it? What we suggest is a simple, minimally necessary effort: to improve the security "climate" in Europe by imparting to the basic principle of indivisible security that was earlier universally accepted as a political commitment, a legally binding character. Herein lies the essence of the initiative launched by President Medvedev for a European Security Treaty. This Treaty is not intended to «cancel» any of the previous pan-European instruments, nor abolish any of the existing organizations. It is not about a new - from an institutional point of view -architecture of European security, but rather about bringing the present architecture to a common legal denominator on the basis of principles collectively promulgated before. We strongly believe that the idea of a European Security Treaty provides a practical answer to security deficits in the region. So far, no one has tried to convince us of the opposite. Quite the contrary, those who have not lost the ability to think in an unbiased fashion and in broad categories, come to similar conclusions. Being here, I am happy to note that the Republic of Cyprus is among a growing number of countries supporting President Medvedev's initiative.
This initiative has already injected fresh energy into activities of the OSCE. But it cannot be locked in within this organization. Its aims require a much more inclusive approach, involving all countries and organizations acting in the Euro-Atlantic area. Otherwise we will still be lagging behind unpredictable developments, not being able to prevent or quickly bring them under control or effectively deal with their consequences. And meanwhile our European "patchwork" security will continue "bursting at the seams".
I believe that preparedness to think in broad and unbiased categories goes completely in line with the spirit and objectives of the Russia-EU strategic partnership. The on-going negotiations on a New Basic Agreement between Russia and the EU confirm that both sides are serious about strengthening their relationship, bringing it to a qualititively new level and creating effective mechanisms to deal with common challenges. Although it is the quality of the future agreement and not the timing that is of utmost importance, I as the head of the Russian negotiating team and a longtime friend of Cyprus will be particularly happy if the completion of this work coincides with the Cypriot Presidency of the EU in the second half of 2012.
Thank you.
