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FRANCE WILL SUPPORT STATUS QUO
Lragir.am News
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/politics23246.html
16:09:32 - 06/09/2011
Political scientist Igor Muradyan commented on Philippe Lefort's
appointment as EUSR for South Caucasus
The newly-appointed EUSR for South Caucasus and the Crisis in Georgia
is going to pay a visit to the region, which aroused much interest
in the countries of the region.
Philippe Lefort used to serve as Head of the General Directorate of
the Continental Europe at the French Foreign Ministry, earlier he
worked as French ambassador to Georgia. Once, his visits to Abkhazia
as French ambassador aroused great interest, as well as, later as
Foreign Ministry official along with this German counterpart.
Philippe Lefort's visit to Turkmenistan in connection with the
political and geo-economic problems was interesting too. According to
the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the
European Union, Catherine Ashton, Philippe Lefort is an experienced
diplomat, he knows the region very well and perfectly fits this office.
We have to note also that the French diplomat is an excellent analyst
and subtly understands most delicate parts of politics in the South
Caucasus and other regions. It is difficult to say for sure why a
Frenchman was appointed to the post of EU Special Representative for
South Caucasus, but we can offer some considerations on this subject.
First of all, we should note that France has been a Co-Chair of OSCE
Minsk group for many years, as well as, France played a unique and
excellent role in the normalization of the Georgian-Russian war. But,
apparently, there are more principled factors of the appointment of the
French diplomat to this post. Perhaps, some key events happened which
have not been adequately reflected in the public debate - namely, the
current and potential capabilities and intentions of the United States
and Russia in the Black Sea and South Caucasus have been clarified.
Briefly, Russia demonstrated an evident failure in the regional
politics and its dreams on "equidistance" from Armenia and Azerbaijan
faded away and in this stage, Russia did everything to hold away
Armenia and the Armenian nation, at the same time, it will not get
anything from its relations with Azerbaijan and Turkey.
United States returned to the original plans to strengthen its presence
in the interior regions of Eurasia and began to ignore Russia's
interests and positions in all functional and geopolitical lines. But,
despite the fact that the U.S. position seems to be more active than
Russia's, the Americans do not feel any enthusiasm for the nomination
of any new initiatives to resolve conflicts and problems in the region.
In a way, Russia's policy during the last 10 years greatly contributed
to establishing and strengthening of the U.S. positions which is
satisfied with the current situation of all countries and the general
alignment of forces in the South Caucasus. In the current situation,
appeared the demand for a "third" party, which can only be the
European Union, but rather, France, which represents the interests
of Europe. It is quite clear that, unlike the U.S. and Russia, the
Europeans do not have the necessary operational capabilities needed
for the influence in a region like the South Caucasus, but this does
not mean that Europe assumes a passive role in the politics of the
region and prefers to just watch the regional processes.
In order to understand the positions of France and its partners
in Europe in the regional policy, it is necessary to attentively
consider the political events in the Arab countries, first of all,
in Libya and Syria. At the same time, it is necessary to focus on
the positions of both leading European partners of France, Germany
and Great Britain, which means combination of more moderate and at
the same time sufficiently proactive policies.
There is no doubt that France has developed its policy regarding
Eastern Europe and South Caucasus, which would require consideration
of new developments in the politics of Turkey, Iran and Russia. As
you know, France has taken a tougher stance against Iran and holds a
very delicate, almost latent, but an effective policy towards Turkey,
where the tactics of France and the U.S. are very similar, which is
reflected in the policy of "containment" of Turkey's foreign policy
ambitions in the region.
It is yet difficult to define quite thoroughly and confidently the
policies of France in relation to the South Caucasus, moreover,
presenting on behalf of Europe, which actually, is happening, Paris
should take into account the stances and positions of its European
partners. There are several signals that the Europeans, and first
of all, France, prefers not initiating new ambitious projects on any
"normalization".
Rather, France and Europe would prefer to encourage the policy of
maintaining the "status quo", with successive promotion of mutual
understanding between the parties to conflicts. Apparently, this is
not just a political style, but very pragmatic policy, which certainly
has reasons, as the repetition of "principles" of the "settlement"
has not yet led to anything but increase of the tension.
Lragir.am News
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/politics23246.html
16:09:32 - 06/09/2011
Political scientist Igor Muradyan commented on Philippe Lefort's
appointment as EUSR for South Caucasus
The newly-appointed EUSR for South Caucasus and the Crisis in Georgia
is going to pay a visit to the region, which aroused much interest
in the countries of the region.
Philippe Lefort used to serve as Head of the General Directorate of
the Continental Europe at the French Foreign Ministry, earlier he
worked as French ambassador to Georgia. Once, his visits to Abkhazia
as French ambassador aroused great interest, as well as, later as
Foreign Ministry official along with this German counterpart.
Philippe Lefort's visit to Turkmenistan in connection with the
political and geo-economic problems was interesting too. According to
the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the
European Union, Catherine Ashton, Philippe Lefort is an experienced
diplomat, he knows the region very well and perfectly fits this office.
We have to note also that the French diplomat is an excellent analyst
and subtly understands most delicate parts of politics in the South
Caucasus and other regions. It is difficult to say for sure why a
Frenchman was appointed to the post of EU Special Representative for
South Caucasus, but we can offer some considerations on this subject.
First of all, we should note that France has been a Co-Chair of OSCE
Minsk group for many years, as well as, France played a unique and
excellent role in the normalization of the Georgian-Russian war. But,
apparently, there are more principled factors of the appointment of the
French diplomat to this post. Perhaps, some key events happened which
have not been adequately reflected in the public debate - namely, the
current and potential capabilities and intentions of the United States
and Russia in the Black Sea and South Caucasus have been clarified.
Briefly, Russia demonstrated an evident failure in the regional
politics and its dreams on "equidistance" from Armenia and Azerbaijan
faded away and in this stage, Russia did everything to hold away
Armenia and the Armenian nation, at the same time, it will not get
anything from its relations with Azerbaijan and Turkey.
United States returned to the original plans to strengthen its presence
in the interior regions of Eurasia and began to ignore Russia's
interests and positions in all functional and geopolitical lines. But,
despite the fact that the U.S. position seems to be more active than
Russia's, the Americans do not feel any enthusiasm for the nomination
of any new initiatives to resolve conflicts and problems in the region.
In a way, Russia's policy during the last 10 years greatly contributed
to establishing and strengthening of the U.S. positions which is
satisfied with the current situation of all countries and the general
alignment of forces in the South Caucasus. In the current situation,
appeared the demand for a "third" party, which can only be the
European Union, but rather, France, which represents the interests
of Europe. It is quite clear that, unlike the U.S. and Russia, the
Europeans do not have the necessary operational capabilities needed
for the influence in a region like the South Caucasus, but this does
not mean that Europe assumes a passive role in the politics of the
region and prefers to just watch the regional processes.
In order to understand the positions of France and its partners
in Europe in the regional policy, it is necessary to attentively
consider the political events in the Arab countries, first of all,
in Libya and Syria. At the same time, it is necessary to focus on
the positions of both leading European partners of France, Germany
and Great Britain, which means combination of more moderate and at
the same time sufficiently proactive policies.
There is no doubt that France has developed its policy regarding
Eastern Europe and South Caucasus, which would require consideration
of new developments in the politics of Turkey, Iran and Russia. As
you know, France has taken a tougher stance against Iran and holds a
very delicate, almost latent, but an effective policy towards Turkey,
where the tactics of France and the U.S. are very similar, which is
reflected in the policy of "containment" of Turkey's foreign policy
ambitions in the region.
It is yet difficult to define quite thoroughly and confidently the
policies of France in relation to the South Caucasus, moreover,
presenting on behalf of Europe, which actually, is happening, Paris
should take into account the stances and positions of its European
partners. There are several signals that the Europeans, and first
of all, France, prefers not initiating new ambitious projects on any
"normalization".
Rather, France and Europe would prefer to encourage the policy of
maintaining the "status quo", with successive promotion of mutual
understanding between the parties to conflicts. Apparently, this is
not just a political style, but very pragmatic policy, which certainly
has reasons, as the repetition of "principles" of the "settlement"
has not yet led to anything but increase of the tension.