I would like to focus on those aspects of Europe’s interaction with Russia that have become not only permanent active factors in mutual relations, but likewise indicate a positive outlook for further development. Therefore, a retrospective look at events will enable us to better understand and consider them.
Modern Russia has embarked on the path of fundamental reforms and has also found a new way of asserting itself in international affairs. During the past year alone, President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have visited about a dozen European countries, and about twenty European leaders visited Russia. These meetings and confidential talks were opportunities for personal interaction and invariably produced concrete results, including intergovernmental treaties, political statements on common positions regarding major international events and cooperative projects.
An important event that was held in Prague this year seems to confirm this trend. On April 8th, the American and Russian Presidents signed a treaty reducing their respective strategic nuclear arsenals. The fact that the Czech capital was chosen as the location for this historic event is particularly significant as it was here in Europe that a new level of mutual trust was established between Moscow and Washington.
European countries’ solidarity with Russia and their immediate and unilateral condemnation of the recent terrorist attacks in the Moscow metro also point to a nascent harmonisation of bilateral relations.
Solid economic cooperation is an important and integral element in Russia's relations with Europe. The partnership has developed a various set of cooperative trends, all of which based on mutual interests.
Such interests not only boost traditional economic and trade relations, but now encompass investment and inter-bank cooperation as well. Today, all the highly reputed, major European banks have branch offices in Moscow and in Russia’s other principal industrial regions.
European business accounts for the bulk of foreign investment in Russia. Cyprus, the Netherlands and Luxembourg are the leaders in terms of investment in a wide range of Russian companies. More than half of all the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)’s foreign investment is channelled into Russia’s economy.
However, it is a fact that substantial funds from Russia have been principally transferred to European countries and these funds finance social programmes in those European nations. By world standards, this means a shift to mutual capitalisation or investment in European companies and financial structures.
A major element of cooperation is Russia’s supply of natural gas to Europe; it satisfies one-third of all European gas requirements. Russian gas giant Gazprom has established direct ties with a number of European companies on a sound contractual basis, particularly with French gas giant GDF Suez. European partners are also joining the Nord Stream gas pipeline project now that it has received international recognition and approval.
I’d like also to highlight a new and very promising trend in the energy sector – the collective, peaceful use of nuclear energy. The European Union has recently given the thumbs-up to begin longawaited negotiations on concluding a large scale cooperation agreement with Russia in this field.
Another important factor in the EU’s relations with Russia is a long tradition of cultural exchanges that date back over a century. We are also seeing new forms of cooperation that are fully in the spirit of our times, a good example being the Year of Russia which is currently being held in France. The practice of organising large-scale art festivals, tours of pop stars and so on, is also gaining momentum. The numerous European classics published in Russian and the wide-spread distribution of European movies on the Russian market make Russia one of Europe’s major partners.
All the aforementioned elements make for a large-scale, diverse and promising partnership between Russians and Europeans.
