By Andrey KLIMOV, Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Co-chairman of the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee.

On October 16, 2009, Andrei Klimov gave a speech at the meeting of the Russian European Club in Monaco. Some points that have been stated present great interest to the P&S site viewers, as they can get current information about the state of Russia-Mediterranean relations first hand.
For millenniums the Mediterranean area has been accumulating different achievements of various human communities and has spread them all over Eurasia and Africa. The Mediterranean sea, a huge and one of the most important regions of the World, a great gathering of cultures and cradle of the European civilization. Thus, due to very many different reasons the historical role of the Mediterranean region was, is and will be significant to Europe and not only. 

Non-random is that some of the EU member-states pay so much attention to this area and have even proclaimed a special Mediterranean policy and Mediterranean partnership. As at sunrise of the European Union, at the times of the Treaty of Rome, in the middle of the last century, founders of the European Common Market took into account problems and perspective of the Mediterranean region.       

In April 1990 the EU Commission declared the “New Mediterranean Policy” which was aimed at the increasing the quality of the EU relations with the Mediterranean countries. Five years after, during the conference in Spain, between 15 EU member-states and 12 states of the Mediterranean, appeared the Barcelona process, based on the mixture of bilateral and multilateral affairs for a better relationship in the mentioned area.But this process of the Mediterranean integration was not so easy and too efficient. Maybe because of that, France during its presidency in the EU in 2008 was forced to stress again the important of the Mediterranean policy for the whole Union.       

It is well known that Russia is relatively far from the waves of the Mediterranean Sea, but the Mediterranean region, Mediterranean policy and the Mediterranean partnership are also important for my country. On the other hand, if you look at the map you cannot say that Stockholm – the capital of the EU presidency now, is much more closed to the Mediterranean than Moscow, the capital of my country.Seriously speaking, the Russian factor has been strong in this area at least for a century (may be except for some years after the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 and just after the collapse of the Soviet Union in early the 90-ies). However some experts can trace the line even from the times of Byzantium and Kiev the Grate.  Anyway, for many decades my country had had very strong and active affairs with most of the Mediterranean states starting with Spain, France and Italy on the North of the area, countries of the Balkans and the Middle East in the East and the Northern Africa in the South of the Mediterranean Sea.       

I am sure, that the role of Russia in this very important area of the world may and has to be stronger in the nearest future.

First of all our new century is the century of globalization. One can feel the sense of interdependence practically everywhere.

In these circumstances the Mediterranean region cannot be an exception and nobody can have a kind of exclusive rights there.
For my country this is not just a theoretical deduction or a homage of the past. The one and only way for the Russian ships from the Black Sea to the Atlantic and Indian oceans and sea routes of our partners to the Black Sea is through the Mediterranean region. Any serious conflict in the Eastern part of the Mediterranean is able to provoke a high rippling of political and economical life of our nearest neighbors around the Black and Caspian seas.  

At the same time it is not a secret that this area is full of old and sharp conflicts, some of them are still hot. Moreover the potential of such conflicts has very deep and strong roots. Among such serious instability factors are:
·         Existing tension between the main religious groups (Christian, Islamic, Judaist);
·         Contradiction between the rich North and poor South;
·         Ethnic conflicts and territorial disputes.
·         Competition for the control on trade routes, natural and labor recourses, new promising markets.           
 
Political instability, existence of dangerous and long term conflicts, threats of terrorism in this sensitive area which is too close to the South gates of my country make very reasonable the returning of the Russian fleet to the Mediterranean Sea.

The Chief-commander of the Russian fleet, Admiral Vladimir Masorin openly declared in July 2007 that the military forces of my country had to exist constantly in the Mediterranean Sea.
A year later, just after the visit of President Dmitry Medvedev to Syria our diplomat in Damascus stressed that the Russian ships would be more often in this area.

Consequently Russia may and must think about restoring the base for its fleet somewhere in this region. For me it is much more reasonable than the existing US military bases all over Europe, including Mediterranean, some thousand miles far from Washington.     

Traditionally Russia is one of the main political players in the Middle East and this role is still very important. Especially if you mind that my country is one of the constant members of the Security Council of the United Nation.

It is well known that the Russian Federation equally with the United States, the UN and the EU is a member of the Middle East Quartet and the role of my country is very high in the settlement of the explosive risk conflict in the Middle East.

We are continuing to promote the resumption of the peaceful process for the general settlement in the East of the Mediterranean. We hope that in case of some understanding between Israel and Palestinian leaders, we can start the concrete preparation for the Moscow Conference on the Middle East.

As you are aware, the idea of the Moscow Conference was adopted in all last declarations of the Middle East Quartet and fixed in two resolutions of the Security Council in December 2008 and January 2009.

At the same time it is not very clear in Moscow how it may be useful to have in parallel the separate negotiations about this settlement in a form of the EU summit for the Mediterranean without the Russian Federation, the United States and the United Nation. Of course, the EU countries have all rights for any edition of the agenda of their summits. But it could be more fruitful to separate issues of the economical cooperation and the political settlement in the East of the Mediterranean. In this case the political problems shall belong to the Moscow Conference under aegis of the Quartet.                                          

In August, 2010 we shall mark the 50-years anniversary of our diplomatic relations with the Republic of Cyprus. More than a have of this period my state has had to do a lot for solving the well known problem of this island. And my country has been playing one of the key roles for the decade in the Cyprus problem.
We also aspire to the cooperation under the UN institutions in the settlement of the Western Sahara problem. In all of the named cases, we are sure, that solution may be found on the political way only and in the framework of the United Nation.
Speaking about security problems I cannot miss new Russian proposals for the European security. Generally speaking we have to renovate our existing mechanisms of security in our entire continent and around it, because we have now not only new conditions, new political environment, but also new threats and challenges. Of course it is not possible to do all these things immediately, without additional efforts and discussions.  

Some may say that this it’s a long and complicated way and a kind of revolutionary breakthrough should be preferred. For these people I want to repeat the quotation from John Roche: “In politics a straight line is the shortest distance to disaster”.   

There are also a lot of things which are far beyond just military or foreign policy issues.
Russia had and has strong and active economical relations (from energy recourses to tourism) with most of the Mediterranean countries. The turnover of commodities between my country and the Mediterranean region is about $75 bl., at that over $45 bl. belongs to the Russian trade relations with the EU member-states.

It’s fascinating that the Russian turnover with the Mediterranean region is practically equal to our turnover with the USA, China and India together!

Annually millions of Russians spend their vacations on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Three millions of them in Egypt, Turkey and Israel where we have no visa barriers, like most of the Russians have in the EU. For the comparison – it is two times bigger than the number of Russian tourists in Spain, France, Italy, Greece Cyprus and Malta together.

Speaking about visa obstacle and the further solving of this problem with the EU I want to suggest something.
For a ten year period the Russian Federation in Cyprus had a visa free regime in-between and the both parties were satisfied. The visa free regime had stimulated Russian tourism to Cyprus and a lot of the Russian investments. But after Cyprus had entered the European Union we again received this visa inconvenience.
Yes, Cyprus government does a lot to reduce the negative consequences of a new visa obstacle to the cooperation between Russia and Cyprus. But anyway it was not a good signal for my compatriots.

Cyprus is an island. It is not possible to drive or to walk from its territory directly to the rest of the EU-countries. Cyprus is not a member of the Shengen Treaty. So why did Brussels force Nicosia for reconstruct of the visa wall with my country?

Usually I hear two answers from the EU colleagues:
·         “We have to have the same visa regulation all over territory of the European Union”
·         “This is the meter of security”. 
What can I say in return? Two simple questions:
ü If all EU states must have the same regulation, why, by the way, the United Kingdom has an exception in the visa regulation with Russia?”
ü Does not Israel (this state has no visa regime for Russians) think about its own security?   
 Or may be here we have the problem of prejudice from the times of the cold war and policy of double standards with Russia?
So, if we are speaking about strategic partnership with Russia and say that this road must not be only one way, why not to give rights especially  for Cyprus to abolish visas regime for Russians. 
I am sure that it would be a good step to a visa free regime with all the EU and good signal in our general cooperation. I believe that it is high time to overcome the old prejudice in the name of Europe without the dividing lines. 

Generally speaking, Russia would like to increase and strengthen our affairs with the EU not only in the Western and Central Europe, not only under the Northern dimension partnership, but also in the Mediterranean region. We can have such a relationship not only by bilateral affairs and regulations, but also based on the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement by and between the EU and my country.

So, I believe that if we are speaking about the new stage of the Russian – EU affairs, about the strategic partnership and common economic space in-between we have to mind anyhow the partnership and cooperation in the Mediterranean.

This article was originally posted on http://www.ruseu.com/blog/politics/details_119.html