February 12, 2003	Wednesday	Zul Hijjah 10, 1423

PARIS, Feb 2: French President Jacques Chirac was very eager to talk to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Monday.

He personally met the Russian president at Charles de Gaulle airport, instead of sending his foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, as had been announced in the official protocol.

Several hours later it became clear why. Putin joined Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in calling for expanded arms inspections in Iraq as a way to disarm Baghdad peacefully, rather than by the forceful means advocated by the United States.

The declaration made public after talks between the two presidents in Paris contained very little that had not been heard before from Paris and Berlin: expanded inspections, Iraqi disarmament within the framework of Security Council Resolution 1441, force only as a “last resort”.

On Tuesday, China added its support to the declaration, creating a powerful ad hoc anti-war alliance that will be difficult for Washington to dismiss.

Including Putin in the bloc resisting the American push for war was Chirac’s answer to the letter of support for Washington that was signed by the leaders of 18 European nations.

And such was the effect of Putin’s joining his “new Russia” to Chirac and Schroeder’s “old Europe” that it suddenly appeared as if the United States and its hawkish allies were in the minority.

Writing on Tuesday in the French newspaper Liberation, Patrick Sabatier declared, “George W. Bush and the America media giving in to nationalist hysteria are discovering, with the irritation of rich children whose toys have stopped working, that the rest of the western world (not to speak of the rest of the world) no longer toes the line.”

Before coming to Paris, Putin had stopped off in Berlin, where he signalled his support for the Franco-German alternative to war in Iraq.

By putting his signature next to Schroeder’s on Monday, the Russian president also helped bring the German chancellor out of the cold and back into the diplomatic “game”.

Putin’s support of the European anti-war stance is all the more remarkable in light of what Washington promised him for backing its aggressive stance against Saddam Hussein.

This included putting Chechen rebel groups on its official list of international terrorist organizations and, according to the Wall Street Journal Europe, quietly assuring Moscow that it will be able to pursue and develop its oil exploration plans in Iraq after Hussein is ousted.

Perhaps in exchange, Putin has vowed not to use Russia’s veto against a Security Council resolution authorizing an attack on Iraq, and other Russian officials have made it clear that the United States remains the leader of the international anti-terrorist coalition.

From European leaders, Putin has also received assurances that they will support his Chechen policy, not a very popular position in France.

In addition, the moderate Kremlin-friendly newspaper Izvestia suggested that Putin backing the European opposition to American war plans — and forming a Paris-Berlin-Moscow axis — was simply good business.

European partnerships are crucial, the paper said, reminding the Russian head of state that Berlin is Moscow’s largest foreign investor.

Being a member of the “axis of peace” has put Putin in an influential, but delicate position.

As Izvestia put it, “How should such fabulous diplomatic wealth be used, bearing in mind that any step in the direction of one of the sides in the dispute may be regarded as ‘betrayal’ by the other?”

For the moment at least, Putin seems at ease with his balancing act. Asked on Monday if the discord over Iraq would jeopardize relations with the United States, he replied by saying that it might be better if there were a “single opinion” of the issue.

“But then,” he quipped, “it would be like Communist Party meetings in the Soviet Union.”—dpa