Moratinos on Europe's relations with Russia

With an eye to the crisis in the Caucasus and "America's difficulty with its role as the sole global hegemonial power", Spain's foreign minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos reflects on relations between the EU and Russia: "The new international context requires ... that the EU define for itself a clearly demarcated global project, inspired by the values and principles that make it what it is. ... Our bilateral relations must combine both neighbourliness and strategic relations to foster cooperation and stability. The geostrategic reality is that the Russia of 2008 has nothing to do with the country that rose out of the Soviet rubble. Russian policy-makers of today are convinced that under the leadership of the US and with no opposition from within Europe, the West is renewing its policy of containment against Russia and seeking to fragment our continent. And they believe this could well pave the way for a new Cold War. They take the construction of a missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic and the urgent attempts to bring Ukraine and Georgia into NATO as clear signs for this development."

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