MOSCOW, Oct 31: British Foreign Minister Jack Straw said ahead of a visit here on Wednesday that the West was ready to embrace Russia in a new security partnership following the Kremlin’s support for a US-led war on terror.
Arriving from Poland, Straw held talks with his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov and was later due to meet senior parliamentary deputies in the British ambassador’s residence before leaving Moscow late Wednesday.
His visit coincides with a trip here by US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage as Moscow re-emerged as a diplomatic focal point three weeks into the US-led campaign against suspected terrorist bases in Afghanistan.
Both Straw and Armitage are in Moscow on sensitive missions aimed at easing Russian fears that it might get little from Western allies in return for adopting the politically-risky course of opening post-Soviet airspace and military bases to NATO states.
But while Armitage’s visit focuses on preparations for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s mid-November summit in Crawford, Texas with George W. Bush — where missile defence is likely to dominate the agenda — Straw spoke of building a broader global “balance of trust” with Moscow.
“September 11 changed the world. (British Prime Minister) Tony Blair has spoken of how the kaleidoscope has been shaken. Before the pieces settle, we have a chance to re-order the world,” Straw was to say in a speech to be delivered to State Duma lower house of parliament faction leaders.
An advance copy of the address was sent to AFP.
“This gives us the opportunity to construct a lasting relationship of an entirely different kind between Russia and its partners in the West,” Straw said.
In an interview with Russia’s Interfax news agency conducted on the eve of his Moscow visit, Straw went one step further, noting that Russia could one day become a member of NATO itself.
The idea, first mooted by Putin early last year but quickly slapped down by Washington at the time, has since been reworked by Moscow, with the Kremlin suggesting that Russia and NATO unite in a security alliance of equals that carries a new name.
Straw said he supported the idea of establishing a new military organization that includes Russia.
Yet at the same time, Straw defended NATO’s planned expansion into eastern Europe, a move that the Kremlin has fought tooth-and-nail for years but which appears to have recently been accepted by Putin as inevitable.
“September 11 showed how interdependent we all are,” Straw says in his prepared remarks. “Chaos on the other side of the world brings instability and insecurity to us all.
“No modern state can succeed without active support from and cooperation with other states. The global system of states cannot function properly where parts of that system have broken down into chaos and anarchy,” Straw stressed.
He further adopted a more conciliatory line to Moscow’s two-year war in the predominantly Muslim separatist republic of Chechnya, echoing recent Washington sentiments that the rebels were in fact linked to the prime terrorist suspect, Osama bin Laden.
Interfax cited Straw as saying that bin Laden is providing support for some of the fighters in Chechnya, and that Russia is facing a serious security threat in the region.
The comments marked an abrupt departure from previous London calls for Russia to scale down its military campaign, and open direct peace talks with the rebels.
At the same time, Straw took care to underline that the anti-terror campaign was not aiming to single out Muslims as prime targets for attack.
Straw urged Russia to gain “a genuine understanding of the Muslim faith.” This, said Straw, is “essential for both Russia and Britain.”—AFP