{"id":59159,"date":"2018-02-19T05:46:12","date_gmt":"2018-02-19T05:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=59159"},"modified":"2018-02-19T05:46:12","modified_gmt":"2018-02-19T05:46:12","slug":"bad-guy-russia-emerges-as-central-player-in-western-diplomacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/world-news\/bad-guy-russia-emerges-as-central-player-in-western-diplomacy.html","title":{"rendered":"‘Bad guy’ Russia emerges as central player in Western diplomacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘Bad guy’ Russia emerges as central player in Western diplomacy<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

European and U.S. officials divided over U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s foreign policy found common cause this weekend in decrying what they say is Russia\u2019s covert campaign to undermine Western democracies.<\/span><\/p>\n

But despite the transatlantic show of anger at Russia during the Munich Security Conference, Western officials and diplomats also acknowledged an uncomfortable truth: that Russia is critical to resolving many of the world\u2019s worst conflicts.<\/span><\/p>\n

From eastern Ukraine to North Korea, Russia\u2019s status as a nuclear power, its military intervention in Syria and its veto on the United Nations Security Council mean any diplomacy must ultimately involve Moscow, officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t find a political solution without Russia,\u201d Norwegian Defence Minister Frank Bakke Jensen told Reuters. \u201cWe need to reach a point where we can work to find a political solution, and they must be central to that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Publicly at least, Russia was the bad guy in Munich, roundly criticized for interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign after the U.S. indictment of 13 Russians this week, and more broadly for its 2014 annexation of Ukraine\u2019s Crimea.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the West, such unity of purpose marked a change after a year of Trump\u2019s \u201cAmerica First\u201d rhetoric, his inconsistent statements on NATO and the European Union, his decision to pull out of the Paris climate change accord and his move not to certify Iran\u2019s compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the annual Munich event, a rare gathering of European and U.S. security officials that also attracts top Russian diplomats, American policymakers were visibly irritated with Moscow\u2019s public denials of accusations of meddling.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am amazed that … the Russians come, they send someone, every year to basically refute the facts,\u201d U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said of the Russian presence at the event.<\/span><\/p>\n

But behind the scenes, diplomats said there was a different tone, as top officials including NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the gold-and-white paneled rooms of the Bayerischer Hof hotel.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a diplomatic network that works,\u201d said Russian senator Aleksey Pushkov, citing contacts to resolve the Syrian civil war including Moscow, Ankara, Washington and Tel Aviv. \u201cIt\u2019s something that, if used efficiently, can prevent bigger confrontations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel met several times with Lavrov, offering the prospect of easing economic sanctions imposed over Moscow\u2019s role in eastern Ukraine and calling Russia an \u201cindispensable\u201d partner in global efforts to prevent proliferation of nuclear weapons.<\/span><\/p>\n

Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who negotiated the 2015 accord curbing Iran\u2019s nuclear ambitions, said the West needed to \u201ccompartmentalize\u201d issues with Moscow, so that diplomacy could achieve more.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIN RUSSIA\u2018S HANDS\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Part of the challenge for the West is that international crises have been interlinked.<\/span><\/p>\n

Russia is allied to Israel\u2019s nemesis Iran in Syria while Moscow\u2019s support for separatists in Ukraine draws NATO\u2019s ire.<\/span><\/p>\n

But NATO-ally Turkey is seeking to complete an arms deal to buy Russian air defenses. It has struck U.S-backed Kurdish forces in northern Syria with Russia\u2019s blessing.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Asia, U.S. efforts to stop North Korea\u2019s atomic weapons development rest partly on Moscow\u2019s willingness to countenance a U.S. and European call for an oil embargo on Pyongyang, which it has so far rejected.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA few years ago you could talk about distinct crises, but today, if you\u2019re discussing one, you\u2019re shaking all the others,\u201d Norway\u2019s Jensen said.<\/span><\/p>\n

So as Israel\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu railed against Iran in Munich on Sunday, in New York, British, U.S. and French efforts to condemn Tehran at the United Nations immediately ran into Russian resistance, diplomats told Reuters.<\/span><\/p>\n

And in Munich, while U.S. and European officials saw momentum for U.N. peacekeepers in eastern Ukraine to resolve the four-year-old conflict there, U.S. special envoy Kurt Volker conceded everything rested on Moscow.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s in Russia\u2019s hands,\u201d Volker told a gathering of EU and U.S. officials, including Sweden\u2019s defense chief, who offered his country\u2019s troops for any such mission.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nine years ago in Munich, then U.S. Vice President Joe Biden promised to \u201creset\u201d relations with Russia, but few in the West appeared to realize the depth of Russia\u2019s resentment over the break-up of the Soviet Union and NATO\u2019s eastward expansion.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, with Western economic sanctions in place on Russia over its 2014 annexation of Crimea and its support for rebels in eastern Ukraine, East-West ties are at their lowest since the Cold War, with little chance of an improvement, diplomats said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/mideast-crisis-syria-pentagon\/u-s-still-unsure-who-directed-syria-attack-despite-russian-dead-idUSKCN1G204S<\/span><\/p>\n

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