Few people know the recent IV European meeting with “Eurasia” in Riga

 

In terms of understanding more about the current situation in Eastern Europe and Caucasus, an important analysis should be taken into consideration to face and overcome such a crucial and controversial issue. No many people actually know that the IV summit among EU and the six countries involved in the Eastern Partnership program (Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia) was held in Riga few days earlier than the European Summit on May, 21^st-22^nd. Such a program was launched in 2009. The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, Donald Tusk (President of the European Council,) and Federica Mogherini (High Representative for the European Foreign Policy), were in the IV Summit, attended also by Heads of State and Ministers of Foreign Affairs of all 28 member countries.

The meeting has been focused on foreign policy especially on the Russian-Ukraine crisis. Therefore the heads of state have tried to make more efficient and decisive the Minsk agreements started last February to ease tensions among Kiev, separatists in eastern Ukraine and Russia, maintaining the principles of sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.

Moreover, the European Union has committed to provide financial aids of about two billion dollars to help the Ukrainian economy in recession because of the conflict.

However Ukraine is not actually the only one with borders disputes because this is a common situation of all states of the Eastern Partnership, except for Belarus. Georgia still asks for sovereignty on Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Moldova on Transnistria while Armenia and Azerbaijan are still formally at war to control Nagorno-Karabakh. Such conflicts have begun with the Soviet Union dissolution and they constantly weaken local governments revealing the deep internal splits which make complicated their prospective of independence.

Nevertheless as expected, a better approach to resolve such crises has not definitively been found. Therefore EU does not close economic and diplomatic relations with its Eastern partners but has not yet taken either a global and definitive solution into consideration to successfully overcome such a main issue in the Caucasus among Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

“We made the best of what we could achieve today” – the President of EU Council Donald Tusk said – in the final press conference of the summit.

Therefore there are doubts about the future of Eastern countries. Becoming member of the newly formed Eurasian Union or pursuing actively the political approach to the European Union are two important key questions in which those countries are involved to answer. Azerbaijan alone does not seem forced or willing to make a choice because it has enormous natural wealth to export and it remains neutral towards Moscow and Brussels.

However Belarus and Armenia have already joined to the Eurasian Union while Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine are constantly looking for more agreements and cooperation with the Western countries in order to obtain more support on current internal conflicts.

Furthermore, as well as the Georgian Prime Minister, the former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has been invited in the Riga meeting. He authorized the military invasion of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in August 2008, causing more than 2,000 deaths. He has been invited to attend the meeting of the European People’s Party, a partner of the United National Movement he represents. After leaving Georgia, where wanted for a series of crimes therefore he first established in the US then in Ukraine, where it has even been appointed adviser to President Poroshenko.
On the Russian front?

An important meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of Abkhazia Raul Khajimba was held in Sochi on May, 15th after the 70th anniversary of victory in World War II. They discussed the prospects of a modern development in terms of a stronger cooperation between Russia and Abkhazia so that Moscow has started a profitable and closer approach to the problems that afflict the young republic in the Caucasus.

Since the signing of the Alliance and Strategic Partnership Treaty between Russia and Abkhazia, signed last November, a series of measures such as various more social security agreements and salary increases for certain categories of state employees, defense agreements on the borders and on internal affairs of Abkhazia and Russia have been implemented.

Since January 2015, Russian government provides funds which amounting to five billion rubles (268 million euro) to Abkhazia respecting the November bilateral agreement including the training of a joint group of armed forces and a more efficient interaction in the economic sphere. The Georgian government has always condemned this partnership calling it “unlawful” as claimed by the Georgian Minister of Foreign, Tamar Beruchashvili; that Government sees it as “a threat” to regional stability, a violation of the Georgian sovereignty and a violation of the agreement signed in 2008 by Russia and Georgia, under auspices of EU, according to what Federica Mogherini declares.

EU has not actually more else to offer. After the war in 2008, EU launched the controversial and not resolving “Non-Recognition and Engagement Policy” now completely useless. Hoping for a possible solution to the crisis, starting immediately to develop a more efficient and constructive long-term diplomatic plan with Moscow, instead of promoting economic and political sanctions would be by far the most profitable and effective approach for EU because the export to Russia is extremely important for the European economy and negative collateral effects are already weakening our economy in slight progress.

©www.osservatorioanalitico.com – Riproduzione riservata

Comments are closed.