NATO Munich Conference: USA must discard carrot and stick policy

NATO members are meeting in Munich to debate the current issues affecting the fortunes of the member states. Russia, a non-member which opposes the organization is also represented here. US president Barack Obama, who is seen busy in drafting a solid foreign policy to make the world peaceful and prosperous and meet the global problems, has already said he intends to make Afghanistan a priority, and his Vice-president Joe Biden is expected to ask European governments for more help with the war effort. Joe Biden is expected to give the first clear indication of the new US government's foreign policy direction in a speech in Germany.  Biden will address a security forum in Munich, with Iraq and Afghanistan likely to be high on the agenda. Speculation has been rife that he could announce a review of the missile shield plan, but the Czechs and Poles remain determined to press ahead with it.

On Fen 08, on the eve of the NATO conference in Munich, Friday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov sent conciliatory messages to new U.S.. President Barack Obama, saying Moscow would not start new missile deployments if Washington reviewed plans for a missile defense system in central Europe. Biden will also meet Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, amid cool relations between the two nations. Among other leaders Biden is set to meet at the Munich conference are German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. On 08 Feb Sunday, he will see President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia, who received US backing in its brief conflict with Russia last year.

After the Georgian conflict where Russia showcased its power, NATO has developed cold feet and wants to pacify Russia on missile shield. Speaking at the same security conference in Munich, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer backed cooperation with Russia on the missile shield, which Washington says is aimed at protecting against attack from "rogue" states like Iran. Nato chief said it was willing to include Russia in discussions over a missile shield but does not consider serious defense cooperation possible unless Moscow abandons old thinking. "I think real transatlantic cooperation on missile defense including Russia is very doable and would, I think, make those who might threaten Europe with missiles think twice. Ivanov added that Moscow was eager to hold talks on the shield with the Obama administration and was open to a joint assessment of threats with the USA.

USA wants every thing in its own terms, especially with Iran which it treats as a rogue state. Larijani's comments are a sign that any efforts at reconciliation with Iran will be difficult and complex. The meeting with Ivanov is also expected to be a challenging one. Western analysts have portrayed Kyrgyzstan's decision this week to close the last remaining US air base in Central Asia as being the work of the Kremlin.

And speaking before the conference, Ivanov focused his attention on the controversial plans drawn up by the Bush administration for a missile defence shield in Central Europe. President Medvedev from the very start said very clearly and unequivocally that if there are no interceptors in Poland and the Czech Republic... there will be no Russian Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad, a Russian region outside Russia.  

Containment of Muslim nations?

Today Islam is under virtual threat form anti-Islamic nations, led by a global gang of pretentious countries like USA, India and Israel. They kill the Muslims on fabricated pretexts like "terrorism" and WMD. USA and other NATO terror rogues want to build military bases in Islamic world. NATO supports the idea of discussions Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has proposed on a broader Euro-Atlantic security architecture, which many NATO allies have expressed a willingness to take part in. However, NATO refuses to have such a serious discussion of such a new architecture, in which President Medvedev himself says territorial integrity is a primary element when Russia is building bases inside Georgia, a country that doesn't want those bases. De Hoop Scheffer: "That cannot be ignored and it cannot be the foundation of a new European security architecture." Scheffer was also concerned that Kyrgyzstan had announced in Moscow this week plans to close a U.S. airbase used to supply forces in Afghanistan, saying this was at least "incongruous" with Russian support in other ways for the international operation there. NATO wants Russia to understand the need for civilizational cooperation and need to move beyond a 19th century 'Great Game' idea of sphere of influence.

Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra, whose country would host part of the U.S. shield, also said the United States and central European countries should cooperate with Russia on the plans but Moscow could not have a veto. Former U.S. President George W. Bush sealed deals last year to deploy 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic. Moscow has condemned the plan and threatened to put its own missiles near the Polish border in response.

US-led terror wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan have badly tarnished the global image of USA as a democracy seeking real freedom and welfare of the global nations. On the contrary, the terror wars killing innocent Muslims in these nations have exposed USA as a major global terror nation seeking to control the energy and other resources of the world by keeping alive the terror planks.

USA gets the necessary help from other like-minded state terrorists focused n Islamic world. While in Iraq, Russia is opposing US genocides, it helps the USA in Afghanistan in killing the innocent Afghans defending their country from foreign invaders, as another "democracy India" has been doing. 

Iran considers US-led NATO and its allies like Israel a serious threat to its security and economic interests. However, Iran has welcomed the new US government, saying it was a "golden opportunity" to improve ties. But Tehran resented the Obama's remark about "easing the fists" to seek friendship with USA. Larijani, who is Iran's parliamentary speaker, warned it would take more than a change of tone and a few interviews from President Barack Obama's government to mend the fractured relationship between Tehran and Washington. "The old carrot and stick policy must be discarded," he said, referring to Western threats and offers of rewards to coax Iran to give up nuclear activities. He said the US needed to change its tactics "to a chess game from a boxing match".

Obviously, it sis not just with Iran that USA should pursue a new positive diplomacy, but also with all Muslim nations across the world and stop the ongoing terror wars against Islam.   

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Yours Sincerely,

DR.ABDUL RUFF Colachal

Columnist & Independent Researcher in World Affairs, The only Indian to have gone through entire India

South Asia.