Russia 101202 Basic Political Developments

Beginning of meeting with President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev

http://eng.kremlin.ru/transcripts/1392

December 1, 2010, 13:00 Astana

PRESIDENT OF KAZAKHSTAN NURSULTAN NAZARBAYEV: Mr Medvedev, I want to thank you very much for finding the time to come to Kazakhstan once again straight after giving your Address to the Federal Assembly yesterday. I know what an important event this is, and what goes into it too, the preparations and the delivery.

We all remember the speech you gave in the Kazakh language here on July 5. That truly was a unique occasion, addressing such a large public too. Some would have said just a word or two, ‘hello’, say, but giving an entire speech in generally decent Kazakh really was a mark of respect on your part.

As far as our relations go, I think we have no problems. I am looking forward to the meeting in Moscow on December 9, 2010.

We spoke about the fact that next year we will celebrate the CIS’ 20^th anniversary. You have proposed holding the celebrations in Moscow, and I have no objection to this.

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: We will reach an agreement.

Mr Nazarbayev, I simply want to express my respect and thanks to you for getting this summit organized. I know that this took a lot of selfless effort and it was not always easy finding compromises and getting everything agreed. This is indeed a big event for the whole Eurasian region. It was not a good thing that there had not been an OSCE summit for so long. 

Security issues on our continent are not being resolved in the best fashion, as we can see from the rather serious conflicts that have taken place over the last decade. The fact that you managed to get this summit organised and hold it in Asia for the first time, here in Kazakhstan, is therefore recognition of your state-building achievements and also recognition of the OSCE’s potential.  

We all criticised the OSCE today, I too in my speech, because we know we have the chance to make it stronger. But I think that holding this summit is a very important event, and so I want to thank you once more for the initiative and political will you have shown throughout this work. I think this is important for all countries, for Kazakhstan too, of course, as a young and fast-growing country.

Our bilateral relations need no comment. They are very good. We have our traditional agenda to work on. I think there is not even really any need to go into these issues right now, as we will meet again in Moscow very soon. 

We will work on the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space. Almost all of the documents are ready now. I spoke with the [EurAsEC] Secretary General about this just before. I think that everything will work out. This is an important event in our countries’ lives, in the life of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus. We will therefore continue to take this project forward. Thank you very much for the summit’s excellent organisation. 

Beginning of meeting with Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte

http://eng.kremlin.ru/transcripts/1389

December 1, 2010, 11:30

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Mr Prime Minister, I am pleased to have this first real meeting with you and make your acquaintance. I hope that this meeting will continue the fine tradition of meetings and partnership relations that bind our two countries together.

Russia and the Netherlands are good partners and we have a large volume of trade cooperation. Looking through the figures for this year I see that the Netherlands is practically our top trade partner in terms of bilateral trade volume.

PRIME MINISTER OF THE NETHERLANDS MARK RUTTE: Ok! Well, that’s good! That’s good news!

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Of course, there are other things to discuss too. We also have a good cultural and humanitarian partnership and we will talk about this too, and then are regional matters to discuss too, of course. So, we will talk about the situation in all different areas.

Of course, this OSCE summit that has brought us all to Astana is an excellent event and we hope it will produce positive results, despite the fact that most of the European representatives are still rather sleepy, which is only natural, considering that it is still only 7 am in Europe.

MARK RUTTE: Yes, that’s true. (Laughter.)

Thank you so much, Mr President, for my having this chance to meet you. Our relationships are excellent. You have visited Holland. The Hermitage is now an official museum also in Amsterdam, which is beautiful. You have opened it yourself with the Queen.

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: I took part in the opening.

MARK RUTTE: Exactly. And also the business ties are good. I work with Unilever myself, which is a big company in Russia, but also Shell, of course, is a big company, so the trade relations and also investor relations are very important.

START TREATY

Republicans Signal Support for Russia Nuclear Treaty (Update1)

http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=af90pWOfqgyg

By Lisa Lerer and James Rowley

Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Several Senate Republicans signaled a willingness to support a new arms control treaty with Russia by the end of the year, even as their party vowed to block nearly all business in the chamber.

“I’m open to it,” Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee said in an interview yesterday. “The administration has made some important steps in the right direction” toward resolving Republican concerns, he said.

Republican leaders have stalled consideration of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, vowing to block passage of all bills until Congress takes up legislation extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts and passes a stopgap funding bill to keep the federal government operating until appropriations measures for fiscal year 2011 are enacted.

Yesterday, some Republicans indicated that they would be open to supporting the agreement once those matters are resolved.

“It’s a two-step process: We do taxes and then we do START,” said Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Senate approval of a resolution supporting ratification of the accord would award a significant victory to President Barack Obama, who considers the treaty the top foreign policy priority of his administration for this congressional session.

One-Third Reduction

The START agreement, signed by Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in April, would cut each country’s deployed nuclear warheads by about a third, to a maximum of 1,550, and would allow both nations to resume on-site inspections. The previous treaty expired in December 2009.

Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the chamber’s No. 2 Republican, has pushed the administration for assurances, including funding, that the White House is committed to modernizing the U.S. nuclear weapons infrastructure even as it cuts the arsenal.

Several Republicans indicated this week that talks were progressing.

“The administration has evolved in a really positive way as it pertains to modernization,” Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee said in an interview.

Robert Bennett of Utah, who is retiring at the end of the year, said he wanted to see what “wrangling” over the ratification resolution produced before saying how he would vote. Still, he described himself as “generally disposed to” approve ratification of the treaty.

‘Move Forward’

“I believe we can move forward with the START treaty and satisfy Senator Kyl’s concerns and mine about missile defense and others,” Senator John McCain of Arizona said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” program.

Two-thirds of the senators present and voting are needed to approve ratification. If all 100 senators are in the chamber, nine Republicans would have to join with Democrats to reach 67 votes. Three Republicans supported the treaty in a Sept. 16 vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. So far, only Lugar has said he would definitely support the treaty in the full Senate.

Ratification of each of the last three arms-reduction treaties was approved with more than 90 votes.

Democrats suggested yesterday that the treaty’s chances for ratification in the next month were improving. “The START treaty will be done by Christmas,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said on CBS’s “Early Show.”

Colin Powell’s Support

Obama urged passage of the treaty yesterday in remarks after meeting with Colin Powell, a former secretary of State under President George W. Bush and a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to discuss the pact.

“Now it’s time to get this done,” the president said. “It is important for us to make sure we complete the evaluation process, we finish the debate and we go ahead and finish this up before the end of the year.”

In recent weeks, the White House has brought in officials from previous administrations, both Democratic and Republican, to endorse the pact. Last month, Obama met at the White House with James Baker, President George H.W. Bush’s secretary of State; Henry Kissinger, secretary of State under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford; and Madeleine Albright, President Bill Clinton’s secretary of State.

‘Compelling Reasons’

In an opinion article in today’s Washington Post, Powell, Baker, Kissinger and two other secretaries of State in Republican administrations -- George P. Schultz, who served under President Ronald Reagan, and Lawrence Eagleburger, who also worked for President George H.W. Bush -- wrote there are “compelling reasons” for their party to approve ratification.

At the White House yesterday, Obama and Powell said that a failure to ratify the treaty would hold up new verification procedures for the U.S. and Russia to monitor each other’s nuclear arsenals.

Russia plans to build up its nuclear forces if the U.S. fails to ratify the treaty, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in an interview on CNN’s “Larry King Live” yesterday.

He said through a translator that if Russia’s proposals are “met with negative answers only,” and if “additional threats” are built near Russia’s borders, “Russia will have to ensure her own security through different means.”

The U.S. and Russia must “agree on a joint effort,” he said.

Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said Democrats were eager to approve ratification.

“There’s a very vocal group of senators who believe this needs to be taken up now,” Kerry told reporters Nov. 30. “What we need to do is carve out space to get it done even as we do some of the other business.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Lisa Lerer in Washington at [e-mail]; James Rowley in Washington at [e-mail]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at [e-mail].

Last Updated: December 2, 2010 02:08 EST