Russia-EU summit shows real progress - political analyst
Regular summits are very important for the continuation of Russian-European dialogue and partnership, believes Olga Buturina from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.
“The co-ordination and negotiation of world economic issues between Russia and European Union was deepened greatly during the world economic crisis,” Buturina told RT. “So they together prepared some decisions that will later be taken by the G20, and that is a real step, a real progress.”
Speaking of the prospects of Russia joining WTO, Buturina said that “recently there was formed a new group between Russia and EU within its partnership and co-operation instruments to discuss the issues of international co-operation and trade facilitation. So I think, to some extent, this is an important step to Russia joining the WTO,” she added.
Read more on the Russia-EU meeting
“I think the future is very positive and the economic crisis added to the understanding of that, that both Russia and the EU are in charge of the situation in Europe and situation in the world,” the analyst concluded. “So they are very important actors and they should take important and active measures to improve the overall economic and political situation in Europe and in the world.”
The results of the EU-Russia summit are good but could have been more significant, says
Ekaterina Kuznetsova – Director of European Programmes at the Centre for Post-Industrial Studies.
“We have just had the improvement of relations between Russia and Poland, it’s the first summit after the acceptance of the Lisbon Treaty,” Kuznetsova told RT. “But it was known before the summit that the results would be very slight, and they are, in fact, since the EU and Russia have signed only a very small agreement on the exchange of secret information. And we had one more document, but it’s an intentional document. So I think that, in general, the results could have been much bigger, but in fact what we have – we have to deal with that.”
