.bmp)
.bmp)
UNITED NATIONS-Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has proposed a pan-European summit to review a plan to create a "reliable collective" security system in Europe.Lavrov said Saturday the existing architecture of European security "did not pass the strength test in recent events," in a reference to the Georgia conflict, and told the UN General Assembly that a "pan-European summit" should take "a comprehensive look at security problems. "Lavrov did not say when or where this summit would be held but said its task would be to weigh a proposal made by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Berlin last June to develop "a treaty on European Security, a kind of 'Helsinki-2'."The Helsinki accords were signed by 35 states in the Finnish capital in 1975 in a bid to improve relations between the Moscow-led communist bloc and the West.In a major foreign policy speech in Berlin last June, Medvedev said the eastwards expansion of NATO risked "spoiling" relations between Moscow and the West "in a radical way" for years to come.He proposed the creation of a sweeping new European security pact to replace Cold War-era treaties.Saturday, Lavrov said the proposed treaty aimed to "create a reliable collective system that would ensure equal security for all states.""It is a process involving all participants who would reaffirm their commitment to fundamental principles of international law, such as the non-use of force and peaceful settlement of disputes, sovereignty, territorial integrity, non-interference in the internal affairs, and inadmissibility of strengthening one's own security by infringing upon the security of others," he added.This was a veiled attack on Washington's plan to site 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a targeting radar in the Czech Republic as part of a missile defense system already deployed in the United States, Britain and Greenland.The project angers Moscow, which says the plan is a threat to its security and has threatened to respond with targeted attacks on the missile shield's future sites.Russia is also furious over Western plans to include ex-Soviet republics Georgia and Ukraine in NATO. NATO reaffirmed its pledge of eventual membership for Georgia and Ukraine after the Russia-Georgia conflict last month.Lavrov defended Moscow's five-day blitzkrieg in the breakaway Georgian enclave of South Ossetia in August to dislodge US-armed and trained Georgian troops who had attacked Moscow-backed separatists."Russia helped South Ossetia to repel aggression, and carried out its duty to protect its citizens and fulfill its peacekeeping commitments," he noted.He said the Caucasus conflict showed once again that "it is impossible or even disastrous to try to resolve the existing problems in the blind folds of the unipolar world.""We cannot tolerate any more attempts to settle conflict situations by breaking off the international agreements or by unlawful use of force. If such a venture goes unchecked, we will risk a chain reaction," he added.Russia last month recognized the independence of the breakaway Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, a move condemned by the West and which Tbilisi slammed as part of a policy aimed at creeping annexation of the two regions. Moscow however fiercely opposes Kosovo's unilateral independence which it views an an illegal violation of the territorial integrity of its ally, Serbia.Ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo, a UN-run province of Serbia since 1999 when it was wrested from Belgrade's control in a NATO air war, unilaterally seceded from Belgrade on February 17. Its statehood has been recognised by 46 countries, including the United States and most European Union nations.As in the days of Noah....
