“Strategic talks shouldn’t take central stage in 21st century”

17 Sep, 2009 13:12 / Updated 15 years ago

Strategic issues such as the shelving of US AMD in Eastern Europe shouldn’t dominate relations between states in the modern world, says Sergey Utkin from the Institute of World Economy and International Relations.

The Polish Defense Ministry has already called the decision by the US “a catastrophe”.

Concerning the problem of Russia’s relations with Poland and the Czech Republic, Utkin believes that “in the 21st century, it’s really odd to have a discussion between the countries dominated by strategic issues.”

“We need to think more about economic and cultural cooperation with these countries. Humanitarian issues – they are to take central stage in the relations between states.”

“The fact that we have the antiballistic missile issue as the core of the talks with these Eastern European countries means the relations are distorted and should be changed”, the analyst believes.