Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-12-12-Speech-2-151"
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"en.20001212.8.2-151"2
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"Mr President, Russia has yet to come to terms with herself, to decide what sort of society she wants to create and define her position in the world. For over seventy years, her development was distorted and held back by the monstrous experiment of communism which grew to threaten us all. I must say I very much welcome Mr Oostlander's report for its very reasonable and balanced approach, praising constructive reforms while criticising blatant human rights abuses. But let me say a couple of words about our strategic relationship.
While encouraging a strong economic relationship between the European Union and Russia coupled with efforts at political cooperation, we must take care that we do not create for ourselves some sort of strategic dependency. For example, it has been suggested in the context of European defence policy – about which I have to say we continue to have reservations – that the European Union might turn to Russia to provide strategic airlift capabilities to complement the arrangements already in place between the WEU and Ukraine. Now I am in favour of encouraging Russia and the Ukraine to move in our direction and cooperate with other alliance countries in crisis-management tasks, but I would not be in favour of us moving in their direction or adjusting our policies in order to accommodate them.
It would be a very dangerous situation if the Europeans were to become logistically reliant on Russia. If we do not have our own strategic airlift then we already have a tried and tested ally in the United States – and in this context I am sure that Mr Oostlander has no desire for Russia to supplant the United States as a strategic partner for Europe. We must work in the closest possible harmony with the United States in our dealings with Russia and certainly must not give Russia the impression that there are divisions to be exploited. This would be in no one's interests.
Secondly, we must take great care to ensure diversity of production and supply in terms of energy. Already some 40% of natural gas supply for the EU comes from Russia, and an increasing proportion of oil imports now come from the CIS countries, where known reserves are larger than those in the United States and North Sea combined. Many of the transit routes for these are through areas of great conflict. It is in our interests to do all we can to help stabilise that region by economic and political means, ensuring that we do nothing to encourage or sustain instability in the Caucasus and the southern regions of Russia."@en1
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