Giants meet to counter US power
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle1386812.ece
From The Times
February 15, 2007
Jeremy Page in Delhi
India, China and Russia account for 40 per cent of the world’s population, a fifth of its economy and more than half of its nuclear warheads. Now they appear to be forming a partnership to challenge the US-dominated world order that has prevailed since the end of the Cold War.
Foreign ministers from the three emerging giants met in Delhi yesterday to discuss ways to build a more democratic “multipolar world”.
It was the second such meeting in the past two years and came after an unprecedented meeting between their respective leaders, Manmohan Singh, Hu Jintao and Vladimir Putin, during the G8 summit in St Petersburg in July.
It also came only four days after Mr Putin stunned Western officials by railing against American foreign policy at a security conference in Munich.
The foreign ministers, Pranab Mukherjee, Li Zhao Xing and Sergei Lavrov, emphasised that theirs was not an alliance against the United States. It was, “on the contrary, intended to promote international harmony and understanding”, a joint communiqué stated.
Their formal agenda covered issues ranging from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East and North Korea to energy security, nuclear non-proliferation and trade. The subtext, however, was clear: how to use their growing economic and political muscle to prevent Washington from tackling such issues alone.
“In the long term, they feel that the whole structure of international relations has to shift in their direction,” said Vinod C. Khanna, of the Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi. “What has happened is that quite independently they’ve reacted very similarly to recent international events.”
Mr Mukherjee said: “We agreed that cooperation rather than confrontation should govern approaches to regional and global affairs. We also agreed on the importance of the UN.”
Diplomats say that it is premature to talk of a strategic axis between the world’s largest and two most populous nations because they still have more in common with the West than with each other.
Delhi was close to Moscow in Soviet times, but has forged a new friendship with Washington. Chinese relations were soured by its border wars with India in 1962 and the Soviet Union in 1969, and by its arms sales to Pakistan. Russia appears keener than China or India to challenge American hegemony. But there has been a convergence of interests as each struggles to make the transition from a command economy to free markets. Since 2003 they have found further common ground in opposing the US-led invasion of Iraq.
One area of agreement is opposition to outside interference in separatist conflicts in Chechnya, the northeast of India and the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang.
Another is energy. India and China are desperate for Russian oil and gas, and Moscow is worried about its dependence on Western markets. But their most significant common ground is opposition to US military intervention in Iran. The joint statement did not mention Iran, but the three countries have taken a common stance in calling for a negotiated solution through the International Atomic Energy Agency. None of them wants a nuclear-armed Iran, but Russia sells Tehran nuclear technology and India and China need Iranian gas.
Bush plays down Putin's criticism of US
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070214...a_070214185950
Wed Feb 14, 1:59 PM ET
(AuGmENTor: I was really suprised to see this!! *dripping sarcasm*)
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George Bush brushed off recent sharp criticism from Russian President Vladimir Putin saying the two countries could work together on common goals despite a "complicated relationship."
"There's a lot we can work together on, and that's what's important for the American people to understand," Bush said at a White House news conference.
The US president acknowledged that the two leaders have "disagreed on the utility of NATO," an alliance that Putin has described as a threat to Russia.
But Bush said the two countries could cooperate on certain vital issues, including diplomatic efforts addressing Iran and North Korea's nuclear ambitions and stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons
Russia and the United States both have the same goal in "convincing the Iranians to get rid of its nuclear weapons," with Moscow playing an important role on the issue as a member of the UN Security Council, he said.
Bush also said that "Russia and the United States worked very close on proliferation concerns."
The Russian leader on Saturday castigated the United States as a reckless "unipolar" power that had "imposed itself on other states" and that US dominance in the world was "ruinous."
The Kremlin leader delivered the scathing remarks at a high-level international security conference in Germany, saying that the United States had dangerously "overstepped its borders in all spheres."
Putin attacked NATO expansion into the former Soviet Union and was scathing about a plan to set up US missile-defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. He suggested these weapons were aimed at Russia.
"It's a complicated relationship," Bush said of Washington's ties with Moscow.
"It's a relationship in which there are disagreements, but there's also a relationship in which we can find common ground to solve problems. And that's the spirit -- that's the spirit I'll continue to work with Vladimir Putin."
