News from Thursday, April 30, 2009

Körber Policy Paper by Eckart von Klaeden: German Policy on Russia Must Be European

“Kein Sonderzug nach Moskau. Deutsche Russlandpolitik muss europäisch sein,” an essay in edition Körber Stiftung’s “Standpunkte” series, which was first published in October 2008, is now available in English as Körber Policy Paper No. 4 (“No Private Trains to Moscow. German Policy on Russia Must Be European”). The author,  Eckart von Klaeden, is foreign policy spokesman of the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group in the German Parliament.

At the start of the essay Eckart von Klaeden notes that relations between Russia and the EU have deteriorated in the recent past. The main reason for this has been Russia’s conduct, and its views on history and the notion of sovereignty, which are different from those of the West. He expresses his opposition to the notion of “convergence through integration,” which is advocated by certain German politicians, and to the very idea of a Russo-German special relationship. A German “private train to Moscow” simply revives old nightmares and generates new fears. Those who are in favour of an equidistant approach to Russia and the US are weakening both the EU and Germany. For this reason von Klaeden calls upon the EU to show a united front in its dealings with Russia in order to pre-empt the latter’s divide-and-rule strategies. He believes that Germany ought to initiate a common EU policy on Russia.

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