The summit in question will be held against the backdrop of the rapid deterioration in bilateral relations between the US and its closest North America and Europe allies. For Putin, who has stayed in power for nearly two decades, this will be an inaugural summit with a fourth different US president, so he will arrive at it as a political heavyweight.
Last time the presidents of these two major geopolitical powers met in Helsinki, it was March 1997. Back then Bill Clinton represented the Western world and Russia would have Putin’s predecessor – Boris Yeltsin. It was a time when Yeltsin’s health was deteriorating rapidly and a long flight might take a toll on him, while Clinton was in a wheelchair after injuring his leg hurt.
A long list of contradictions between Moscow and Washington in the Middle East is being aggravated even further by their inability to develop a common understanding of Tehran’s policies in the region. The new American administration doesn’t even try to make a big secret of the fact that it perceives Iran a major threat that can be really damaging to its own interests along with the interest of its closest allies – Israel and Saudi Arabia. In turn, Russia while being fully aware that it is capable of influencing Tehran’s policies to a certain degree, still can not allow a country that actually became its partner in Syria to be publicly humiliated, even at the diplomatic level.
However, there’s no real mystery as to what position will be defended by Kremlin in Helsinki, the question is what the White House willing to put at the table. This means that there’s a possibility that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin can both open a new chapter in the international politics or come to a stalemate, leaving us with nothing but a bare bone for the international media to chew on. The personal qualities of the two presidents can facilitate the attempts to move closer to a common understanding of the conflicting matters, without getting outside players involved. In addition, each of the leaders is inclined to approach the discussion form a purely pragmatic point of view, and can then transfer this approach to future contacts with all sorts of partners and allies. This seems as a highly likely scenario, since Washington has become aware of its limitations after conflicts Afghanistan and Iraq, while Moscow had a similar experience in both Syria and Ukraine, which means that parties are not going to be inclined to threaten each other with any major aggressive steps.
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