Putin on foreign policy. The Russian Prime Minister has talked to the Russian press. Reuters has some quotes:
On his interest in becoming President again in 2012:
Asked by the Kommersant daily newspaper in an interview whether Russia’s 2012 presidential election did not worry him because he had already decided it, Putin replied: “No, it interests me like…I wanted to say like everyone, but in fact more than everyone else. But I don’t want to make a fetish out of it.”
On foreign policy making:
Putin praised Medvedev’s conduct of Russia’s foreign policy, which he said was just as strong as its domestic policy. “I am tired of dealing with foreign policy,” Russian news agencies quoted Putin as saying. “Dmitry Anatolyevich (Medvedev) is doing this work well. Why butt in? It’s not a hobby”. Putin said he and Medvedev frequently discussed foreign policy but claimed that the decisions were always left to Medvedev and dismissed as “blabber” the notion that he was still running the country.
On the “reset” with Washington:
Putin said he “really wants to believe” in a warming of relations between Washington and Moscow promoted by U.S. President Barack Obama. But he warned there were still factors which could upset the so-called “reset” in ties between the two Cold War superpowers. Chief among them was what Putin termed the “re-arming” of U.S. ally Georgia following its 2008 war with Russia. “A long-term rearming of Georgia is going on,” he said. “What for ? But it is for real. We already see it.”
Putin also criticised U.S. plans for anti-missile systems in central Europe, saying that although Washington had abandoned plans to station missile batteries in Poland, there could still be a radar base in the Czech Republic and other countries in the region might host elements of the system. “So where is this ‘reset’ ?,” Putin asked. “We don’t see it yet in this area.”
NATO chief Rasmussen on pull-out from Afghanistan. Reuters reports:
“I do not say that the security situation in Afghanistan is satisfactory, because it definitely isn’t. But there is progress,” Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told Danish TV2 News.
“And I hope that we at the NATO summit in November will be able to decide to begin to gradually hand over responsibility in 2011,” he said on the eve of an official visit to his home country Denmark.
Afghanistan has set a target of 2014 for the country to take over complete security responsibility from NATO and the United States, which is ramping up efforts to train Afghanistan’s army and police. Rasmussen said he supported Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s 2014 target.
President Barack Obama has said he intends to start pulling out U.S. troops from Afghanistan in July 2011 as long as the right conditions exist. A growing number of NATO nations are setting target dates for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, reflecting domestic unease over the rising death toll in the war. The Netherlands began pulling its 2,000 troops out of Afghanistan on August 1.
Ashton in China. The official programme of the EU’s foreign policy chief’s visit to China this week can be found here.
Georgieva on Pakistan. Today the EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid & Crisis Response will appear before the Parliament’s Development Committee and report from her Pakistan trip. Live at 14.00 here.
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