Posted on 01/21/2005 2:18:29 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
NAKHABINO, Russia, Jan 20 (AFP) - Visiting French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier on Thursday spoke of "real convergence" between Paris and Moscow on Iran's nuclear program, the Iraq crisis and the Middle East peace process.
"We can point to many issues of real convergence on issues facing us. I am thinking of regional crises, such as Iraq, peace hopes in the Middle East and negotiations with Iran on non-proliferation," he told reporters in this Moscow suburb, with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov at his side.
The two men are to take up those issues Friday at a meeting of the Franco-Russian security cooperation council which will also be attended by defence ministers of the two countries.
Russia and three western European countries - Britain, France and Germany- share a view that Tehran can be persuaded through talks to restrict its nuclear activities to the civilian sphere and to fulfil its international obligations in this regard, a French official said here earlier Thursday.
"We have kept the Russians informed on our negotiations from the beginning," the official, a member of the Barnier delegation, told reporters, referring to European talks with Iran on its controversial nuclear program.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, admitted that Washington was "very sceptical" of the European initiative on Iran but said Paris had heard nothing suggesting that Washington planned to confront Iran militarily over its nuclear ambitions.
US President George W. Bush refused earlier this week to rule out military action by the United States if it found Iran was pursuing development of nuclear weapons.
He was commenting on an article that appeared in The New Yorker magazine stating that US operatives have been working on the ground in Iran since last summer, gathering information on potential military targets.
Iran warned Thursday it would respond to any threat from the United States.
"The Americans know, and we are telling them, that the Russians are on the same wavelength as we are," the French official said here.
"Iran is interested in strengthening its status as a regional power with a nuclear weapon... and we want to persuade them that this can be achieved better through economic development," he added.
Russia is completing construction of Iran's first nuclear power reactor despite fears in the United States and Israel that the project could help the Islamic state develop nuclear warheads.
Turning to what he called the Chechnya "crisis", Barnier said: "We want to encourage the political process so that violence against the civilian population can end, so that politics, dialogue prevail."
"I restated our position on this serious crisis. We want to combat terrorism wherever it exists," he added, while stressing that Russia's territorial integrity must not be questioned."
Some 80,000 Russian troops are based in and around Chechnya, where a guerrilla war continues to rage more than five years since the latest conflict in the breakaway Russian republic began.
Meanwhile in Saint-Petersburg, visiting French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie on Thursday urged Russia to reject isolationism and instead boost ties with Europe to ensure regional stability.
"It is in no one's interest to see Russia become edgy or to withdraw inward," she said during her visit to Russia's second largest city at the invitation of her Russian counterpart Sergei Ivanov.
"When there are periods of edginess, it is France's task to lift some ambiguities and to play this role of facilitator by relying on old ties which we may have but also on personal relations based on trust," she said.
"This serves the interest of Europe and of balanced international relations," she added.
"It appears that there is on both sides an obvious desire for rapprochement between Russia and the European Union," French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie told reporters after she and French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier met Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"Geographic proximity, along with a certain number of challenges that we are confronting, make us desire this rapprochement," she said.
Prior to meeting Putin, Alliot-Marie and Barnier held talks with their Russian counterparts, Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and the French foreign minister afterwards also voiced backing for Russia's aim of strengthening relations with the EU.
"We want to find the best way to develop this association between Russia and the common European security and defence policy," Barnier said.
Members of the French delegation said Russian officials had voiced regret that there was not a single clear channel for discussing security and defence issues with the European Union as there was for talking to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
"We naturally explained that European security policy, the European Union, is not the same and can't be compared to NATO," Barnier said.
"It's not the same organisation. I think this approach was understood today," Barnier said, adding: "We are persuaded that we will find a solution for this operational partnership, including to plan and carry out operations together."
Putin said Russia placed "particular importance" on developing relations with France.
"Our viewpoints on development of the situation in the world coincide to a high degree," the Russian leader said. "That is why the activity of our defence and foreign affairs ministers, the coordination of efforts to achieve shared goals, is extremely important."
When have Paris and Moscow not been eye-to-eye?
Birds of a feather....it must really suk to be them...crappers.
Europeans must be genetically predisposed to be appeasers.
As a line in one of my favorite movies asks, "Doesn't that warm the cockles of your heart?"
Most likely for Chechens to deliver a package to Moscow.
This is soooo typically a French approach to a threat. Do all you can to downplay the danger of a govenment like Iran. Support the Russians who are building the nuclear facilities. And do it with a stunning duplicity while saying they want to be better friends to the Americans! This is the same France that's keen to sell weapons to China, and the same France that sucks up to Mugabe. This is the France of Saddam.
Oh but it's OK, pooty - poot is a "Christian".... mumble, mumble .... triangulation .... mumble, mumble .... strategery .... mumble, mumble .... Russia won't always do what we like ... mumble, mumble .... this is just Communist propaganda .... mumble, mumble .... great move to preempt the EU .... mumble, mumble .... etc. /sarcasm
I'd say that the Frenchman is probably overstating his case. Putin basically endorsed Bush in the election, due to his own issues with terrorism in Chechnya.
Other French-Russian alliances:
WWI: France/Russia align....Russian..."oops, sorry we are going to quit WWI and go have a Revolution bu-bye (Germans send millions from Eastern Front to the Western Front. Thankfully, for France the US fills the void just in time prior to the Germans swamping the French.
WWI: Germany/Russia/France(sort of)....OK, Germany aligns with Russia and agree to divide Poland while Germany gets France...but Germany attacks Russia and then Russia is the great savior to the West (and France) creating an Eastern Front...West elites state Russia is our friend...lol.
All the History I have studied throughout my life, the French and Muscovy have always been together.
{Sorry, very poor sentence construction.}
I remember that several months ago that Iran had plutonium waste that was supposed to be shipped back to Russia but that since Iran refused to pay Russia for the reprocessing, the Iranians kept the plutonium. Iran does not need further plutonium or enriched uranium, they already have plenty of material to make a bunch of nuke bombs. Wish I had saved that article, I would post it.
For the last couple of years I suspected that a EU and Russia strategic relationship would become the "beast" that Revelations foretold of in the bible for the end-times. This tightening of this relationship is not a surprise to me, but it is a little scary.
"I restated our position on this serious crisis. We want to combat terrorism wherever it exists,"
In the immortal words of Zell Miller, "With what? SPITWADS?"
"...The French now are planning on a scheme to widen this union by including Russia for a stretch from the Atlantic to Siberia and the Ural with lots of natural resources underground..."
It is only logical to do so. Not only the French are working on that issue.
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