A senior Kremlin adviser said Tuesday that Russia doesn’t intend to initiate the creation of a global natural gas cartel, but said such a project couldn’t be totally ruled out.
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November 15, 2006NATO advisers have warned that Russia may be seeking to create a gas cartel stretching from Algeria to central Asia to use as a political weapon in dealings with Europe, the Reuters news agency reported on Tuesday quoting its sources in the military bloc.
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Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili appealed to the European Union on Tuesday for solidarity in his country’s standoff with Russia, the Reuters news agency reported on Tuesday.
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Documents from the informal EU summit in Lahti, Finland, last month — together with other top-secret papers — were found in a bin outside the Spanish foreign affairs ministry in Madrid last week.
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The Europian Union has reconsidered sanctions applied on Uzbekistan after hundreds were killed in Andijan mass disorders the BBC reported on Monday.
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Six major powers are set to resume attempts to agree on how to censure Iran for refusing to suspend sensitive nuclear fuel work as Russia hinted Tehran might be willing to return to negotiations, AFP reports.
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Russia has rejected European-proposed U.N. sanctions aimed at forcing Iran to halt its suspected nuclear weapons drive, but Moscow appears to be applying its own pressure by threatening to delay a key nuclear power project, AP reports.
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November 9, 2006Russia voiced its concern over the unabated rise in drug trafficking from Afghanistan at a meeting with EU officials Monday.
Huge volumes of illegal drugs arrive in Russia each year from Afghanistan, the world’s largest producer of heroin and opium, most of which is smuggled through Russia’s ex-Soviet neighbor Tajikistan.
Viktor Ivanov, speaking after a session of the Russia-European Union Permanent Partnership Council for justice and home affairs, said that in Afghanistan poppy farming areas now covered 120,000 hectares, and the annual harvest totaled almost 5,000 metric tons.
“We are very concerned over this issue. The issue was at the center of the talks,†Ivanov said.
Since the collapse of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001, the international community has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on efforts to destroy poppy crops, close drug labs, pay subsidies to impoverished farmers and encourage them to cultivate alternate crops.
The presidential aide, quoted by RIA Novosti said the problem had social and economic roots, which have been exacerbated by weak government and inefficient law enforcement in Afghanistan.
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October 31, 2006The European Union said Friday it was not ready to invite Ukraine to join, dashing the hopes of President Viktor Yushchenko who has been pressing for accession talks to start in 2008, International Herald Tribune reports.
Speaking at an EU-Ukraine summit meeting in Helsinki, Finland, the European Commission president, Jos? Manuel Barroso, said Ukraine had not enacted sufficient economic and political reforms to make it a contender for EU membership. “Ukraine is not ready, and we are not ready,†he said.
Barroso added at a joint news conference with Yushchenko that his comments should not be construed as a “negative signal†for Ukraine, but were calculated to encourage the country to press ahead with difficult reforms.
Barroso’s cautious tone comes as the Union suffers from expansion fatigue following its enlargement in May 2004 into a bloc of 25 countries with 470 million people.
Ukraine has grown increasingly frustrated with Brussels’ refusal to offer membership. Yet many European countries fear that adding another big country like Ukraine, with a population of about 47 million, would hamper the bloc’s effectiveness.
The two sides did, however, agree to begin negotiations next year on a new economic and political cooperation agreement that would improve cooperation on trade, diplomacy, justice and environmental protection. They also signed a deal that would ease the visa requirements for Ukrainians wanting to work in the EU and the repatriation of illegal immigrants to Ukraine. Kiev eliminated visa requirements for EU citizens in 2005.
Yushchenko welcomed the agreement, which would ease the procedures for granting short-stay visas to Ukrainian citizens traveling to the EU, with the goal of issuing such visas in less than 10 days. “This document will be felt by every Ukrainian,†he said.
EU officials said they had also won assurances from Ukraine on the security of the bloc’s energy supplies. EU nations were alarmed last winter when a pricing war between Ukraine and Russia resulted in a temporary cut in part of the gas supply coming into the EU via Ukraine. Barroso said that a pricing deal this month between Russia and Ukraine meant that the EU’s energy supply was assured, at least for this year.
The EU also backed Ukraine’s bid to join the World Trade Organization, a prerequisite for signing an enhanced free trade accord with the EU. But it also called on Kiev to rein in corruption and improve political stability. Four ministers from Yushchenko’s party quit last week after talks collapsed on a coalition with Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, who is closer to Russia than the president.
The president and prime minister also have squabbled over Ukraine’s potential NATO membership, of which Yanukovich remains skeptical.
Ukrainian business leaders warned that the EU’s approach risked intensifying skepticism in Ukraine, where those in favor of joining the Union fell to 41 percent in 2005 from 51 percent in 2004.
Oleksandr Kharchenko, spokesman for Interpipe, a large Ukrainian manufacturer of train wheels and steel pipes, said the EU was erecting too many barriers to trade with Ukraine. “EU trade protectionism towards Ukraine only damages the perception that the Ukrainians have of the EU, and their willingness to forge further bonds,†he said.
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October 28, 2006Russia on Thursday expressed misgivings about a European draft U.N. resolution imposing sanctions on Iran, which the United States supports but wants to strengthen, the Reuters news agency reports.
Russia, the United States, Britain, France, China and Germany held their first meeting on Thursday afternoon on the draft Security Council resolution, which would ban Iranian trade in nuclear materials and ballistic missiles. But Western diplomats do not expect the six to agree until the middle of next week, at the earliest, after which the text would be circulated to the full 15-member council.
The resolution is in response to U.N. demands that Tehran suspend by August 31 its uranium-enrichment activities, which the West believes are a cover for bomb-making. Iran says its program is aimed solely at energy production.
Speaking in Russia, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the European draft did not match previous agreements among the major powers seeking to rein in Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and predicted long negotiations before the issue is resolved. He said the object was to “eliminate the risks of sensitive technology falling into Iran’s hands†and stressed the importance of dealing with Iran through the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog.
Lavrov said it appeared that the “proposed resolution clearly does not meet the tasks earlier agreed by the six.â€
The United States wants to suspend Russia’s construction of a nuclear power plant at Bushehr — something diplomats say is a negotiating tactic as Washington tries to strengthen other measures in the resolution. The Europeans refused, saying they had to meet some of Russia’s and China’s concerns, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the talks are in progress.
But State Department spokesman Sean McCormack expressed U.S. backing for the European draft, saying, “We have fully supported that effort from the very beginning.†He also played down differences with Russia, saying that Washington understood Moscow’s fears about putting too much pressure on Iran.
“We know that the Russians have some concerns about the tactics and concerns about applying too much pressure too quickly on the Iranians. We certainly understand their point of view,†McCormack told reporters in Washington.
The resolution makes clear that Russia cannot deliver a fuel cycle, which the West fears could be used for a nuclear weapon, unless it is approved by all 15 members of a Security Council sanctions committee. The $800 million reactor is expected to go into operation next year.
The draft resolution, obtained by Reuters, would invoke Article 41 under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which calls for enforcement of sanctions but excludes military action. In addition to exempting the Bushehr reactor, the text:
- Demands nations “prevent the supply, sale or transfer†to Iran of “all items, materials, equipment, goods and technology which could contribute to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.â€
- Imposes a freeze of funds and assets overseas of entities and people involved in Iran’s nuclear or ballistic missile program.
- Imposes a travel ban on people responsible for and involved in the program.
- Prohibits “specialized teaching or training of Iranian nationals†in disciplines that would contribute to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
- Requests within 30 days after adoption a report from the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency on whether Iran has suspended its nuclear activities.
- Considers suspending the sanctions if Iran complies with the resolution but threatens to consider further unspecified measures if it does not.
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October 27, 2006
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