Medvedev on first visit to West

Dmitry Medvedev put on a friendly face when he met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday, during his first visit to West as Russia's new president, trying to stress the importance of Russian-Western relations over any disputes the two sides are having at the moment. He talked more freely though to a group of German businessmen and politicians.

He told this group that plans to bring the former Soviet states of Ukraine and Georgia into NATO would severely damage relations for Russia and the West for a long time to come. Medvedev also said something I believe - that NATO has outlived its usefulness.

NATO was formed during the Cold War as a balance to the Soviet Union's bloc of Eastern European states, the Warsaw Pact. NATO's mission was to defend Western Europe against an invasion from the Soviet side that never came. Now with the Soviet Union long gone and many of the old Warsaw Pact countries now NATO members, the organization is trying to find reasons to justify its existence. Since 9/11, NATO's has taken on anti-terrorism operations, something quite far removed from its original mission.

Russia has always been suspicious of NATO's eastward expansion. Taking in Ukraine and Georgia for Russia is a step too far, something that would hurt Russia’s relations with the West. Medvedev said that rather than take actions that will drive the West and Russia apart, the two sides should work together to build stability for the entire region. "Now we must talk about the integrity of the entire Euro-Atlantic space — from Vancouver to Vladivostok," Medvedev said.

And again, I think that Medvedev is right. Expanding NATO and the United States' plan to but missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic (another idea Russia is bitterly opposed to) seem to me to be policies that won't benefit the United States or Western Europe but will deal a real blow to relations with Russia. Sometimes in international relations you do have to take steps that will offend another country, but you should at least get some benefit from that move in return. I see no upside in these proposals, and no benefit in worsening relations with Russia.

Even with the dire talk about NATO, Medvedev expressed hopes that relations would continue to improve, and that closer ties were in Russia's best interests. "Russia today has come in from the cold, has returned from nearly a century of isolation and self-isolation," he added.

Medvedev picked Germany for his first trip to the West in part because of the two countries close economic ties.