Terrorism and trade on Russia-EU summit agenda

Trade, energy and anti-terror efforts will be at the top of the agenda for European Union leaders’ summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin tomorrow in London.

Both sides are eager to boost business links and increase cooperation against terrorism, drug trafficking and organised crime.

Also on the agenda is global warming, a top issue for Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose nation now holds the rotating EU presidency.

Mr Blair, who has been pressing for action against warming, pushed the issue at recent EU summits with China and India and plans to discuss it again at the Russia meeting, the Foreign Office said.

He will also hold British-Russian talks with Putin on Wednesday, when the Russian leader is to present citations to British sailors who helped rescue a Russian crew trapped aboard a mini-submarine in the Pacific Ocean in August.

The EU-Russian meeting is aimed at improving a sometimes tense relationship by building on a framework for cooperation laid out at the last summit in May.

Margot Light, emeritus professor at the London School of Economics, said that could be difficult.

“There’s a lack of clarity on both sides about what each side wants from the other,” she said. “They know what they don’t want.”

Mr Blair’s office said energy would be high on the agenda. Oil accounts for much of energy-hungry Europe’s imports from Russia, a major producer which is eager for Western investment.

Energy officials from both sides held talks in London today. The EU said they had agreed on the need to boost energy efficiency in order to tackle climate change.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and Russian Economics Minister German Gref also held talks to discuss market access, energy and the trade relationship after Russia joins the World Trade Organisation, the EU said.

“Trade and investment relations between Russia and the EU are strengthening all the time,” Mr Mandelson said after the meeting.

“Our job is to make those relations as easy as possible, to remove unnecessary barriers.”

European and Russian business leaders also met ahead of the summit. Recent EU statistics show Europe’s trade with Russia increased sharply in the first six months of 2005, with strong growth in both directions.

Amnesty International has urged EU leaders to take a tough line on Russia’s human rights record when they meet Mr Putin.

The London-based rights group recently alleged that Russian forces in Chechnya were responsible for “gross human rights violations,” including torture and forced confessions.

The EU and Russia have long disagreed on human rights. The EU frequently calls on Moscow to respect human rights in Chechnya, while Russia has accused new EU members Latvia and Estonia of discriminating against their large Russian-speaking minorities.

A Foreign Office spokesman said human rights would be on the summit agenda, but he did not know what EU leaders planned to say on the issue.

Prof Light said Russia was also likely to raise its concerns about what it sees as European interference in countries it considers part of its own sphere of influence – Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia and Uzbekistan.

Anther perennial point of contention between the two sides is Moscow’s demand that the EU ease visa restrictions.

The EU says it will only do so if Moscow takes back illegal immigrants from the bloc plus those from its neighbours who reach Western Europe by crossing through Russia’s porous borders.

Russia has been opposed to readmitting illegals, saying such a policy would be costly and could violate migrants’ rights.

At Wednesday’s British-Russian meeting, Mr Putin is sure to raise Russia’s objections to Britain’s granting of asylum to a top Chechen rebel representative, Akhmed Zakayev, and Russian media tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who fled Russia to avoid an investigation.