http://www.kommersant.com/p-12722/U.S._EU_Russian_relations/
KOMMERSANT (RUSSIAN FEDERATION) June 20, 2008 Lavrov Sees New Cold War Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says that Russia and the United States had more trust and respect for one another during the Cold War than now. He made that "paradoxical" observation at "Russia: 21st Century" conference. Lavrov expressed satisfaction that "voices in favor of the maintenance and development of the process of disarmament and real arms control" were coming to the fore in the U.S. presidential campaign. "Such cooperation alone would be enough to guarantee the stability of our bilateral relations until there is mutual readiness to modernize them substantially," he said. Lavrov criticized U.S. plans for a missile defense system with element in Eastern Europe to protect against the threat posed by Iran, saying the system "has little in common with its declared goal." Instead, he said, it is the "advancement of the strategic structure of the American system in Eastern Europe." Russia is proposing that the U.S. and European Union "take a pause" in the missile defense project, the expansion of NATO and the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo. "It won't hurt any of us to think and take look around," he said. Otherwise, the U.S. and EU may become "hostages to their hastily made non-collective decisions." In addition, Lavrov said, it is now necessary to solve problems did not receive attention during the Cold War, such as poverty and global warming. Lavrov said that the cooperation agreement between Russia and the EU should be mainly concerned with security on the European continent. "Most of all, and the European Union agrees with this, the first chapter of that agreement would be dedicated to security issues," he said. The agreement should also address four areas: the internal freedom of each state, economic cooperation, culture and cooperation in humanitarian and scientific spheres. Russia was ready to being those negotiations two years ago, he reminded his audience, and he expressed satisfaction that the EU had come to an agreement among its members so that negotiations could begin. Poland had blocked negotiations because of the Russian ban on Polish meat imports, then Lithuania opposed the negotiations.
