East European and Russian Foreign Policy - Essay Example

Russia & EU In recent years the relations between EU and Russia has been more baffling than we could possibly imagine. Europe has lost its strategic loadstar. Having absorbed 27 countries, Europe is in state of dilemma regarding expansion or regarding the issue of dealing with Russia. Russia too realized that its renewed government style was not in a very happy term or relationship with EU which it did not expect and so the relations after EU Enlargement have been more or less a confusing state of affairs. After the formation of European Union, things have changed drastically for the people and governments near them. Russia is no exception. We all know that Soviet bloc was split in 1991 and soviet era republics became independent. Not to mention the fact that some countries which has the Russian flair in its growth and development have suddenly became free and have joined EU. These East European Countries have led to core formation of European Union. Thus it was soon understood that Russia has lost some of its key allies in process and that it finds itself in isolation both in terms of geographic and political platforms. Another fact is that these East European countries have displeasure with what Soviet Union has treated them. The ideologies were different and there was resentment in these countries over the rule of Soviet Union. Also the eastern bloc was not too happy with the way military section was withdrawn from those places. Factually speaking as the times moved the ideological differences grew so high that though they had same set of language and culture, they were in fact poles part in government If we talk about relations with Europe then we can say there were issues which actually have affected the relationship between them. The enlargement of NATO, the wars in the Balkan region and more importantly the agenda of the EU were the main issues. Apart from these the internal issues of Russia have become a significant factor of relations between them. In this paper we look at the issue of Russia and EU relations and we will be considering some core issues like EU enlargement and relationship levels among them by considering the security, human rights, political and economic factors which affect both of them May 2004 was historic month of the European Union History when as many as 10 countries joined EU and this included 3 of previous Soviet bloc nations and similarly in 2007 two eastern European nations joined the league, thus the major part of Europe with the exception Russia was part of the league and this was main issue among their relations. The reason for a low relation level with Russia was the different ideologies of the states. Post 1990’s soviet transition government has different perception levels when compared the ideology followed by EU. One thing we need to understand is that EU is Russia’s main partner when it comes to trade and commerce and so let’s look at the impact of this enlargement in terms of economic perspectives of both the countries. We know that Russia is a country, where the contribution of production to the domestic market is fairly high. At the same time, in some EU member states production output directed to domestic market is shrinking drastically. Apparently, these countries chose to be export-driven economies and are successfully trying to integrate into international division of labor by penetrating new markets with competitive goods and concurrently ceding domestic markets to more competitive foreign products. Undoubtedly, they are more dependent on the world economy than Russia. If we look at the economic consequences of the result on enlargement of EU with respect to the relations of EU-Russia we can say that it has two sides of the coin, one which talks from Russian point of view and other form European view. Analysts of Russian view focused on negative implications from custom tariff hikes for separate commodities. They talked about problems associated with goods movement through the newly joined countries in EU league and hence it implies that Moscow is not particularly optimistic about the trade relations with EU after the expansion is affected. If we look at the European view, the analysts believe that Russia will benefit with enlargement of EU as they believe that quantitative restrictions on commodities will disappear and they believe that Russian business will gain foothold to the entire European market through long-established ties with the countries joining the EU. It will gain privileges from these newly joined EU and which can be quite a handful in the whole scheme of Russian economy. Among the results which were achieved in economic sphere while continuing talks with EU during Russian-EU summits were following things: there was a reduction in the level of tariffs on goods of Russian origin imported to the new countries which joined EU recently and also there was a broadened quota on some export commodities and finally there were no restrictions on imports of natural fuel and electric energy from enlarged EU and Russia. Although the major issue which arises at this point is that the partnership and cooperation agreement with EU is slated to end this year. It is understood that Russia and EU have agreed to sign a new agreement but it is understood that they would be signing it only in next 3 -4 years. However it is interesting to see the enthusiasm to continue with agreement from Russia’s perspective as they believe it can lead them to stronger alliance with EU and thus making it an economically a better option since EU is Russia’ main partner. But some feel that it could mean to lose of Geographical control of location. Still the agreement was decided to be signed few years later. This was because of the Poland government vetoed over Moscow's ban on meat imports from the EU newcomer. Thus at this present movement I think that situation among the EU- Russia is at critical juncture for the economic prosperity among both the regions and that PCA agreement would become an important element in the trade relations among both the regions. And sources in the EU and other political analysts say that Poland might lift the veto and then the PCA summit and signing of the new treaty may become a reality soon. Coming to the issue of Human Rights violation, this has been one of the core issues among the relations between both the regions. It is widely known the issue which is burning in Russia in recent years has been Chechnya, and political killings of some top Russian Leaders. It is also reported that EU has accused Russia of using its law regarding the closure of media stations in the country. These were some of the issues which can spoil the whole relationship between EU and Russia. One of the main reasons of Russia continued relationship with EU us to increase the role at the international arena. It is known to everyone about Russia’s continued circumspect reaction to NATO enlargement. On the other hand OSCE remains to be one the favored organization for Russia as it corresponds to many of Russia’s concerns regarding the organization of the continental political set up. However people from west believed that Russia’s idea to promote OSCE was in fact a counter attack to oppose NATO, also it is believed that making a pro-OSCE campaign might lead to isolation of region form the total scheme of things thus potentially spoiling the whole relational set up. When Russia became a member of Council of Europe, it was considered an important step in the sweeping changes which would take place in the country however it is understood that Russians were not confident of living up to the standards of Council whose is main watchdog of Human Rights in the region. Adding salt to the injury was the Russia’s actions in Chechnya which has worsened the situation. The whole of the EU and even the council of Europe have criticized Russia for this issue and this has put Russia on the back foot while considering a step forward movement with EU. These all things might just spoil the relations with Europe and as the things are going by it is not too sure that EU is happy with Russia’s Human rights issue. So as predicted by the Analysts, human rights issues in places like Chechnya, crisis of Russia (Kaliningrad region) and Estonia has further brought relations between two regions down as increasing criticism from all parts of European states justifies the state of relations these two regions have at this moment. EU chiefs rightly said that relationship with Russia in recent months have been on the lowest ever position in many years. As the last few years has gone by the relations have been on sour note, all the Russia-EU summits have reduced to mockery session where the only deal was to bargain on energy. EU has criticized the Russians for their monopoly in oil and gas pipelines. And this has further escalated the relations to the worst level. And if the situation does not better, we might just see a complete disharmony among the relationship levels between the two regions. So this brings us to question of what the future of the partnership with these two countries would be. The first question which needs to be taken account is the new treaty which would be signed this year. There needs to be sweeping in the leadership roles of these regions. A new generation of leaders will not care for the old socialist model of European development. The newcomers with their renunciation of socialism could be helpful here. EU has to carve the future of the region. It has its options of moving a super alliance with Russia, its territories and armed forces but this might be long shot at the present moment. Another option which is feasible is to proclaim a course towards a genuine political alliance and formation of a quasi-federative state. Another thing to be looked upon is the Putin’s Foreign policy which might affect the outcome of the whole relationship. It is to be understood that Putin has placed himself as man who has posited the system of his country as Europeanist. His version of National Security concept has given the idea to the people of EU and others that Russia has a common objective of being with leading states of the world. Thus the future looks a better picture than the present situation and that it is hoped as the Russia enters the new avenues in terms of its growing economy, it should also foster the relationship with EU so that Russia and EU will be in for a new historical rapprochement, which will benefit all Europeans. References: 1. Vladimir Baranovsky (2000) Russia: A part of Europe. Moscow : McGraw-Hill 2. Oksana Antoneneko (2005) Russia & EU: Prospects of new relationship. Brussels :Routledge 3. John Pinder (2002) EU & Russia: The partnership. Washington: The Federal Trust Read More