Calmer tack with Russia
(From The Japan Times Dec. 1 issue)

露政府に冷静に対応せよ

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is pushing a proposal for a Euro-Atlantic security pact. This has apparently been prompted by the NATO expansion into Eastern Europe, formerly Russia's sphere of influence; the U.S. plan to use sites in the Czech Republic and Poland for missile defense; and Russia's wish to mend relations with the West after it invaded Georgia, and recognized the independence of the two breakaway enclaves South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Mr. Medvedev's eyes are clearly set on the new U.S. administration of President-elect Barack Obama. Hours after Mr. Obama's election as the next U.S. president, Mr. Medvedev threatened to deploy Iskander missiles (300- to 500-km range) in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad between Poland and Lithuania. He later said Russia could cancel the deployment if Mr. Obama abandoned the missile-shield plan in Europe. Mr. Obama has not made clear his stance on the issue. While the United States says the missile shield is a defense against "rogue states" such as Iran, Russia suspects that the shield is designed to destroy its strategic missiles.

Help for Russia came from French President Nicolas Sarkozy during a Russia-European Union summit in mid-November. He supported Mr. Medvedev's call for a new "security architecture," and both suggested that talks on the proposal be held by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The French president also questioned the U.S. missile-shield plan, saying deployment "would bring nothing to security in Europe" and "complicate things."

With the global financial crisis and the plummet in oil prices, both of which are battering the Russian economy, the momentum for rapprochement between Russia and the EU should give Moscow a chance to steer away from confrontation with the West, and deepen mutual trust in security and other areas. The United States, for its part, should learn that treating Russia in a disrespectful manner, as President George W. Bush did in pushing the missile-shield plan in Europe, will not contribute to building a secure world.

メドベージェフ露大統領は欧州・大西洋地域の安全保障条約を提案している。北大西洋条約（NATO）の東方拡大や米国が東欧で進めるミサイル防衛（MD）計画への対抗と、グルジア侵攻と南オセチア、アブハジア両地域の独立承認後の欧州との関係修復を狙ってのことだろう。

氏は米大統領選直後にカリーニングラードに短距離ミサイル配備を表明、米が欧州でのMD計画を放棄すれば配備を中止すると述べた。

ロシア—EUサミットでサルコジ仏大統領は露大統領の提案する新たな「安全保障の枠組み」を支持、全欧安保協力機構（OSCE）首脳会議で協議を進めることで合意した。

金融危機と原油価格下落に苦しむロシアとEUの関係修復は、西側諸国との対立回避のきっかけとなる。米政府は世界の安全のためにも強引なMD計画推進は避けるべきだ。