NICE: President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia on Friday backed away from his threat last week to deploy missiles on Europe's borders, but only on the condition that President-elect Barack Obama take up a call Medvedev issued with France to hold a summit on European security by next summer.
The Russian leader, who issued bellicose threats against the United States just hours after Obama won the U.S. election last week, argued at a summit in Nice on Friday that all countries "should refrain from unilateral steps" before such discussions on European security take place.
President Nicholas Sarkozy of France, who hosted the meeting between Russia and the 27 European Union nations in his capacity as EU president, helped Medvedev's climbdown. The French leader supported the idea of talks on a new security architecture for Europe, and suggested they could be held by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe next June or July.
Both Russia and the United States belong to the OSCE, whose membership spans much of the northern hemisphere, from Vancouver to Vladivostok. The French president made clear that he wants the United States to think again about the missile defense systems it plans to build in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Medvedev last week threatened to respond by stationing missiles in Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave bordering Poland and Lithuania, both of members of NATO and the European Union.
"Between now and then," said Sarkozy, referring to the summer summit, "please no more talk of anti-missile protection systems." The French president added that deployment of a missile defense system "would bring nothing to security in Europe."
Although he holds the rotating presidency of the EU, Sarkozy appeared to be speaking beyond his mandate because the bloc has little power over defense decisions. His intervention provoked immediate criticism from the Czech Republic.
Alexandr Vondra, the leading Czech official for European affairs, said he was "surprised" by Sarkozy's comments, which, he said, contradict French statements on missile defense at the last summit held by NATO in Bucharest. He also said the comments exceeded Sarkozy's competence as EU president to speak for the bloc's 27 nations. "It is my understanding that Mr. Sarkozy met Mr. Medvedev on behalf of the French presidency of the EU," Vondra said, speaking by phone. "There was nothing in the EU mandate to talk about missile defense."
Diplomats saw the intervention by Sarkozy as another example of his hyperactive brand of diplomacy, which has given him a global profile but proved controversial within the EU.
Nevertheless, the move to defuse the dispute over missiles helped smooth European relations with Moscow ahead of the Washington summit, where the Russians and Europeans, together with the Americans, China, India and other nations, will attempt to reform the institutions that have governed global finance for 60 years. After the one-day meeting in Nice, both Medvedev and Sarkozy left for the summit in Washington.
