U.S. and EU must not get distracted from agenda: a talk with European Affairs on June 25, 2007 (excerpts).

AuthorVolker, Kurt
PositionLeader in Focus - Interview - Excerpt

The State Department's European affairs bureau has publicly set itself three main current ambitions: settlement in Kosovo, stability in Afghanistan, status-quo with Russia. In practice, none of these goals seems likely to be reached on the schedule Washington had hoped for.

On the status of Kosovo, any resolution has apparently been postponed, probably for a year until spring 2008. The new delay was deemed necessary for further U.S. efforts to win Russian backing and to win over wavering Europeans. Assistant Secretary Daniel Fried, who had been saying that Kosovo's independence was coming in "weeks, not months," changed the calendar: asked in July 2007 about the likely date, he was quoted saying "I suspect it will be a number of months, before" the April 2008 summit of NATO leaders in Romania.

In Afghanistan, NATO forces succeeded militarily in the spring of 2007, pre-empting a threatened Taliban offensive with their own offensive that secured crucial infrastructure for development, notably the Kajaki Dam in the southern part of the country. But political support for the allied campaign is being undermined by criticism in Germany and some other European countries about the number of Afghan civilian casualties in the fighting.

Striving to contain Moscow's economic pressure on European countries, Washington seems to be hoping for a status that could be called "a cold non-war." Indications for the moment, however, suggest that Russia's power of intimidation against Europe, notably via energy, is growing and convincing the Putin regime that it can ignore calls to curb its authoritarian domestic trends and uncompromising diplomacy.

Second-in-command of the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at the Department of State--officially titled Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary--Kurt Volker handles U.S. affairs with Europe as a whole. He focuses strongly on Transatlantic ties in the context of relations with the European Union and via NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). A career foreign service officer since 1988, he has had direct experience with NATO both as a member of the U.S. mission and subsequently as deputy director of the private office of the Secretary-General. He left that post in 2001 to join the National Security Council under President George W. Bush as director for NATO and West Europe. He has worked extensively on the Balkans, including the allied peacekeeping operations there in the 1990s. His responsibilities in his present job include Congressional relations and strategic planning.

A central theme recurred throughout his European Affairs interview: that the United States and its European allies--and even Russia--have a shared interest in tackling the new sources of instability from Kosovo to Afghanistan and Iran. Urging the Atlantic community to keep strongly focused on these strategic issues, Mr. Volker welcomed the prospect of greater diplomatic agility for the EU and warned about attempts by a more assertive Russia to reopen old splits in Europe. In calling for Transatlantic unity on these geo-political issues, Mr. Volker voiced enthusiasm at the prospect of stronger leadership emerging now on the part of major EU nations.

But he was also frank that the United States gives priority to security in its concept of crisis management, viewing a minimum of stability as a precondition for effective development in trouble spots such as Afghanistan. This viewpoint--which dismays some Europeans as an over-emphasis on force--was portrayed by Mr. Volker as a stance that can help maintain momentum for the U.S. and the EU in pursuing shared objectives. In any case, he voiced the position that seems set to dominate U.S. policy toward Europe, certainly for the coming 18 months.

European Affairs: The European Union summit has just ended, with the German presidency achieving progress on a limited treaty. What is your assessment?

Kurt Volker: A couple of things struck me. They did get a deal on a new treaty, which now the lawyers have to negotiate in detail. That is good: there has been [since the Constitution's failure] concern, stagnation, lack of creativity, lack of willingness to move ahead on EU business. It is critical for the EU to really get its vision back about where it is going. That should be the significance of this.

I thought it was interesting that France's Sarkozy appears to have played a role in helping put the deal together--working with Merkel, with Blair, with Kaczynski from Poland. That's very encouraging too. To see France playing the role of a power broker in the EU in a pro-active, problem-solving way--that's very constructive. For the EU to actually work, you have got to have all the big players trying to make it work.

Concerning a High Representative on Foreign Policy that merges the Benita Ferrero-Waldner and the Javier Solana jobs [respectively the Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy and the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy], it seems like a good idea because you have both the policy and the resources in one place, so someone can be more effective in doing what they are doing. I think the decision not to call it "European Foreign Minister" is a reflection of reality. Member states will still set foreign policy. They will be giving instructions to this person. If the new person wants to take an initiative in an international crisis, that person is not going to just go out and do it. He has to go back to the Council, to the 27, and try to get the countries to agree and then give him a mandate to go and do something. Importantly however, the person in this new job will have more on the power of assistance money. Where you have a neighborhood policy, you have engagement that the EU can do [things] with various countries. To be able to link that more nimbly to policy would be a very good thing. Not that it has been unconnected, it is just that it has been different heads, different priorities, different timescales--which hopefully get linked together better.

EA: Russia is showing new, tougher attitudes toward Europeans and the EU. What can the United States and Europe do together on influencing this situation?

KV. I think we and the Europeans see eye-to-eye pretty well on our assessment about what is going on with Russia. We are increasingly concerned...

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