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NICE, France-French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he won Russian backing on Friday for talks on security in Europe next year and urged a freeze in missile deployments by Moscow and the United States until then.His call was immediately questioned by the Czech Republic, which is due to host a tracking radar as part of a U.S. missile shield in eastern Europe that has angered Moscow. It said he had no mandate to make such remarks.Speaking after an EU-Russia summit, Sarkozy said he voiced concerns about Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's threat to deploy missiles in an enclave near Poland in response to U.S. plans for an anti-missile shield in Europe. "I indicated to President Medvedev how concerned we were about this declaration and how there should be no deployment in any enclave until we have discussed new geopolitical conditions for pan-European security," Sarkozy told a news conference."As president of the European Union, I proposed that in mid-2009 we meet ... to lay down the foundation for what could be the future of European security," he said. France holds the rotating EU Presidency till the end of this year.Sarkozy said such a summit, possibly under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) security body, which includes the United States and Russia, would not be conclusive but could lay the foundations for a future European security pact."Between now and then, don't talk about deployment of a missile shield, which does nothing to bring security and complicates things," he said referring to U.S. plans to deploy an anti-missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic.In the latest display of the difficulties the EU has in speaking with one voice to Russia, Prague promptly distanced itself from the remarks."France had not consulted such a standpoint with us in advance," Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra said in a statement to reporters."As far as the French Presidency's mandate for the EU-Russia summit is concerned, it contains no mention of the anti-missile shield," he added.Czech Republic is due to take over the rotating presidency of the 27-member bloc from France in January for six months.Last month Medvedev called on the European Union, which relies heavily on Russian energy supplies, to work with Russia on a new security pact, arguing that Washington had forfeited its place at the heart of the world order.Sarkozy said then he was prepared to discuss the proposals and suggested a summit on the issue at the end of 2009.To read more go to:
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSLE20715720081114
As in the days of Noah...
