1. In an article titled “Forward, Russia!” (September), in the Annual Address to the Federal Assembly (November), and in a number of speeches, particularly in Yaroslavl on September 14, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev concretized the basic principles of the Russian foreign policy philosophy, such as pragmatism and advancing the national interests in a non-confrontational way, in the conditions of the current stage in world development and due to the imperatives of the all-round modernization of the country. The head of the Russian state emphasized the necessity of closely associating diplomatic work with the economic needs of Russia, of raising its efficiency in the attraction of foreign investments and high technologies and of harmonizing relations with foreign states based on the mutual penetration of economies and cultures, in a spirit of joint responsibility.
    Pursuant to the tasks set in the Federal Assembly address, the Government of the Russian Federation has been ordered to devise the criteria for evaluating foreign policy performance conducive to the attainment of the objectives of modernization and a technological breakthrough. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been tasked with drafting a program for the efficient and systemic use of foreign policy factors to help the long-term development of the country.
  2. In his remarks at the 64th UN General Assembly session and the UN Security Council Summit on nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation (September), the Russian President highlighted as priorities the solution of the problem of an imbalanced global governance system; enshrinement of the principle of indivisible security in international law; the advancement of the multilateral nuclear disarmament process and the consolidation of the global nonproliferation regime, and called for establishing in the Middle East a zone free of nuclear weapons and other types of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery means.
  3. On May 12, 2009, the President of Russia approved the National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation to 2020. It affirms continuity of Russia’s foreign policy course as formulated in the July 2008 Foreign Policy Concept. The Strategy’s underlying principle, as defined by the Head of State, is “strategy through development.” The document stresses that Russia will pursue a pragmatic foreign policy to avoid any costly confrontation, with reliance upon the norms of international law and the principle of providing a reliable and equal security for all states.
  4. The International Conference ‘The Modern State and Global Security’ was held in Yaroslavl in September under President Dmitry Medvedev’s aegis and with his participation. Those attending included the President of the Government of Spain, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Prime Minister Francois Fillon of France, leading Russian and foreign statesmen and public figures, diplomats, scholars and experts. The speeches and the work of the sections on government social responsibility, on the diversity of democratic experience, effectiveness of global institutions, and the fight against terrorism, separatism and xenophobia have borne out the need for broad international discourse on the ways of post-crisis development, and are evidence of the recognition of the unprecedented nature of this turning point in international relations that requires collective comprehension by the world community.
  5. Overcoming the effects of the global financial and economic crisis remained the key issue. The United Nations Conference at the Highest Level on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development (New York, June) fixed the main thrust areas of action to effectively stimulate anti-crisis measures and reform the international financial and economic system with emphasis on the UN role.
    By a decision of the Group of 20 London Summit (April), the Financial Stability Board was established to collaborate with the IMF and national regulatory bodies to monitor the situation in global finances and conduct crisis early warning exercises. The Pittsburgh G20 Summit (September) adopted a framework agreement containing the basic principles for sustainable economic activity and fixing a common strategy and joint anti-crisis action. It was decided to reallocate quotas and votes in the IMF and the World Bank in favor of developing countries and countries with dynamically evolving markets.
  6. Multipolar networked diplomacy, presupposing flexible forms of cooperation among states to secure overlapping interests, received a boost. Russia actively participated in Group of Eight activities, during the L’Aquila summit (July) in particular, aimed at working out coordinated decisions by major developed and developing countries on major world problems, including the measures to overcome the financial and economic crisis. At the end of the First BRIC Summit (Yekaterinburg, June) a joint statement of the four countries’ leaders on a common vision of ways to exit the global financial crisis was adopted, along with a ministerial statement on global food security.
  7. There was a marked improvement in Russian-American relations. The turn of the administration of Barack Obama toward multilateral diplomacy, along with more active involvement in collective efforts to find solutions to the pressing problems of today created the enabling conditions for establishing pragmatic cooperation between Russia and the United States. The principles and mechanism for stable collaboration in diverse areas were agreed on as a result of the four meetings at the highest level. An Intergovernmental Agreement on the transit of American arms, military equipment, property and personnel across Russia to support US forces in efforts to ensure the security, stability, and reconstruction of Afghanistan was signed during Obama’s visit to Moscow (July).
    Pursuant to the Russian and US presidents’ instruction, intensive talks aimed at signing a new full-fledged and legally binding bilateral treaty on further limitations and reductions of strategic offensive arms – to replace the START Treaty, which expired on December 4, 2009 – have been on since May. The new treaty is to restate the common aims of the two countries in questions of reinforcing strategic stability and mutual and global security.
  8. Multilateral dialogue on the creation of a new Euro-Atlantic security architecture which would meet the benchmarks of an open collective security system became firmly established in the European agenda. President Medvedev sent the Russian Draft European Security Treaty (EST) to leaders of foreign states and international organizations active in the Euro-Atlantic space (November). The initiative to devise and conclude the Treaty was pushed forward by Russian diplomacy at diverse venues, particularly the CSTO, OSCE, the Russia-NATO Council and the partnership with the European Union.
    The CSTO countries came up with a detailed statement in support of the EST (November).
    At the informal ministerial meeting of the “OSCE Plus” (ministers of the OSCE member countries plus executive heads of OSCE, CIS, NATO, EU and CSTO) in Corfu (June), the Greek chairmanship initiated a Corfu Process – a series of meetings to improve OSCE activities, particularly in the domain of security. Russia took an active part in it, guided by the priority of the tasks of ensuring regional military (“hard”) security. The OSCE Ministerial Council meeting (Athens, December 1-2) took decision to continue the Corfu Process. Russia backed up the initiative of Kazakhstan, which takes over the OSCE chairmanship in 2010, to hold a summit of the Organization on its territory.
    NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen spoke in favor of including the EST initiative in the Russia-NATO dialogue agenda (Brussels, September). A full-scale Russia-NATO Council ministerial meeting, the first after the 2008 Caucasus crisis, took decision to conduct during 2010 a joint review of common security challenges and threats in the 21st century (December).
    Negotiations for a new framework treaty governing relations between Russia and the European Union went on. The sides concluded the agreement setting up an energy early warning mechanism (November). At the Russia-EU summit (Stockholm, November), the questions of European security (especially in the EST context), energy security and combating climate change were discussed. It was decided to continue their elaboration as part of the work on the preparation of a new strategic partnership agreement between Russia and the European Union.
  9. The formation of the Customs Union consisting of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus exerts a growing influence on integration processes in the CIS space. At a meeting of the EurAsEC Interstate Council at the Heads of State level (Minsk, November) a Customs Code Treaty was signed along with endorsing a draft Unified Customs Tariff of the Customs Union to be made operative on January 1, 2010.
    Of great significance was the adoption at the extraordinary meeting of the EurAsEC Interstate Council at the Heads of State level (Moscow, February), of the decisions on establishing the (10 billion US dollars) Anti-Crisis Fund and the High Technologies Center of EurAsEC.
    In the context of transforming the CSTO into a multi-field universal international security entity within the Eurasian area, a Collective Operational Response Forces Agreement was signed at the Moscow CSTO Collective Security Council session in June and work began on their practical creation.
  10. Notwithstanding the complicated political situation in Ukraine, the governments of the two countries successfully forged a constructive dialogue. As part of resolving the problems with Russian gas transit via Ukraine, long-term contracts for gas supply to Ukraine, as well as transit to European consumers, were signed (January). In November Russia and Ukraine clarified and fixed their gas cooperation parameters for 2010.
  11. The Russian Federation proved to be an active participant of world energy cooperation. The President of Russia proposed a Conceptual Approach to a New Legal Base of International Cooperation in the Energy Sector (April). The conditions were agreed upon for laying the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of Denmark, Finland and Sweden. Russia also reached agreement with Turkey on investigations in its EEZ relating to the project to build the South Stream gas pipeline.
  12. The juridical base of allied relations with Abkhazia and South Ossetia was being shaped. Of special importance were the agreements entered into with these states on cooperation in state border protection (April) and in the military sphere (September). President Dmitry Medvedev visited South Ossetia in July and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Abkhazia in August. Overall positive dynamics characterized the five Geneva rounds of discussion on security and stability in Transcaucasia (February-November). They were attended by the Georgian-South Ossetian and Georgian-Abkhaz conflict parties, Russia, the UN, OSCE and EU.
  13. Russia’s 2008-2009 chairmanship of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization gave this association extra momentum. During the SCO summit (Yekaterinburg, June) the Convention against Terrorism was signed, along with the Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of International Information Security. For the first time, the summit format included a separate meeting of the heads of the SCO member states and leaders of observer states (India, Pakistan, Iran and Mongolia). SCO Dialogue Partner status was granted to Belarus and Sri Lanka. There was adopted at the SCO Heads of Government Council meeting (Beijing, October) the Joint Initiative for Stepping up Multilateral Economic Cooperation to Overcome the Effects of the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Ensure the Economic Development of the SCO Member States.
  14. Overall, the world saw a growing tendency towards augmented global governance at regional level. The summit of the APEC forum (Singapore, November), attended by the President of Russia, helped to agree on recommendations for overcoming the effects of the global financial and economic crisis and for ensuring balanced and sustainable growth within national borders and in the AP region as a whole, along with elaborating a new paradigm for economic development. The joint communique of the 9th meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Russia, India and China (Bangalore, October) reflects the common approaches of the three countries to key global and regional problems. An appreciable impulse was given to Russian relationships with the ASEAN countries thanks to the Russian President’s visit to Singapore (November) and his meetings with the leaders of the Philippines (June), Brunei (October) and Vietnam (November).
  15. Summit-level contacts continued with the states of Latin America and the Caribbean. The first-ever visits by a Russian President to Nigeria, Angola and Namibia took place (June), this enabling relations with the African states to be elevated to a qualitatively new level.
  16. In conditions of the stalled peace process in Middle East, due to Israel’s refusal to completely halt settlement expansion in the Palestinian territories and because of the absence of Palestinian internal unity, the Russian side proceeded from the need for collective efforts in this sector, with reliance upon the UN and international law. The UN Security Council Ministerial Meeting on the Middle East (May), held on the initiative and under the chairmanship of Russia, approved by consensus a resolution confirming the international legal foundations for resolving the Middle East conflict and the desirability of convening a Moscow Conference on this subject. Similar positions are reaffirmed in the statements of the last three meetings of the Middle East Quartet of international mediators.Du
    ring the Russian President’s visit to Egypt (June), a bilateral Strategic Partnership Treaty was signed. Speaking at the League of Arab States (LAS) headquarters, President Medvedev called for a respectful attitude to Arab countries’ desire to combine in their development contemporary tendencies with national and religious traditions. Russia and LAS declared their intention to establish a Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum at the conclusion of the talks.
  17. A lingering considerable conflict potential, and the continuing high degree of terrorist and narcotics threats emanating from Afghanistan and Pakistan, exerted a serious destabilizing impact on international security. The SCO Moscow Conference on Afghanistan (March), the meeting of the presidents of Russia, Afghanistan and Pakistan (Yekaterinburg, June), and the four-way meeting also involving Tajik President Emomali Rahmon (Dushanbe, July) laid the groundwork for streamlining the regional architecture of cooperation on Afghanistan.
  18. Russia facilitated reducing the tension surrounding the Iranian nuclear program (INP). The IAEA was intensively verifying Iran’s nuclear activities. During the consultations of the political directors of the six mediator states (UK, Germany, China, Russia, US, France) with the Iranian side (Geneva, October) an agreement was reached on giving IAEA inspectors full access to the uranium enrichment plant being built near the city of Qom, on elaborating technical aspects of a scheme envisaging Iran shipping out most of its low enriched uranium to be further enriched for the Tehran research reactor and on holding the next “6+1” meeting to start talks on the essence of the INP and on the issues of concern to Iran. In view of the delay in fulfilling those accords, the IAEA Board of Governors meeting in November with the backing of all the six nations adopted a resolution insistently urging Iran to suspend the construction of the facility at Qom and to observe all the transparency measures in accordance with the requirements of the IAEA.
  19. Russia took part in international efforts to resolve the Korean Peninsula nuclear problem through the six-party talks (DPRK, Republic of Korea, PRC, Russia, the United States and Japan). Following the DPRK’s nuclear test Russia supported the adoption of UNSC resolution 1874 of June 12, 2009 imposing additional restrictive measures against a number of legal and natural entities, and goods of that country. It is largely thanks to Russian efforts that the resolution bears a balanced character: its operation is limited by Article 41 of the UN Charter which does not allow use of force; and it fixes the prospect of suspension and removal of sanctions in the event that the DPRK complies with the UN Security Council’s demands.
  20. Pursuant to the Principles of the Russian Federation State Policy in the Arctic for the Period to 2020 and Beyond, as approved by the Russian President in September 2008, active work continued to preserve the Arctic as a zone of peace and cooperation, which is a national priority of Russia. The Arctic Council ministerial session (Tromso, April) endorsed Russia’s initiatives for establishing a multilateral man-made disaster prevention and management system in the region and crafting the first pan-Arctic document on cooperation in search and rescue operations. The ministerial session of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council (Murmansk, October) evaluated highly the outcomes of Russia’s chairmanship of this structure in 2007-2009.
  21. Naval groupings of states and of their associations were built up to counter the mounting threat of piracy in the northwest Indian Ocean. Ships of the Russian Navy constantly patrolled the waters off the coast of Somalia and escorted ships sailing under Russian and foreign flags. The regular meetings of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia, and other international fora made it possible to better coordinate the anti-piracy efforts of states. Bringing to justice the persons accused of committing acts of piracy remained a serious obstacle. In this regard, Russia came up with the initiative to create a special international judicial structure for their criminal prosecution.
  22. Russia facilitated increasing the effectiveness of the peacekeeping activities of the UN, and building its capacity in the areas of peacebuilding, mediation and preventive diplomacy. Russian peacekeepers are involved in ten UN peacekeeping operations – in Africa (the major ones in Sudan and DRC, and also in cooperation with the EU mission in support of the UN presence – in CAR and Chad), the Middle East, Kosovo, Haiti and Timor-Leste.
  23. Russia actively participated in the international preparatory efforts for the United Nations Climatic Forum (Copenhagen, December). The main objective of the forum is to work out decisions regarding a new international cooperation regime in combating global climate change for the post-Kyoto period (after 2012). Efforts by the Russian negotiators are mainly directed at securing due consideration of the national interests of Russia in the international climate change process, achieving a universal, fair character of a future regime and ensuring the participation in its realization of all countries, primarily from among the major emitters of greenhouse gases.
  24. The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation rendered a decision not to apply the death penalty in the country after January 1, 2020 (November), extending the moratorium until Russia’s ratification of Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms concerning the abolition of the death penalty.
    At the 63rd session of the UN General Assembly, the Russian Federation was re-elected to the Human Rights Council for 2010-2012 (May), which evidenced the high evaluation of the Russian contribution to international cooperation in the protection and encouragement of human rights. The priorities of Russia continue to be ensuring the rights of ethnic and linguistic minorities and overseas compatriots, countering neo-Nazism and other forms of racial discrimination, preventing the falsification of history, and fostering the interreligious dialogue.
  25. The First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety took place in Moscow in November. The Declaration adopted at its end suggests that the UN General Assembly should proclaim the period from 2011 to 2020 a Decade of Action for Road Safety with a view to stabilizing and then reducing the rate of fatal traffic accidents in the world.
  26. Russia’s Permanent Delegate to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Eleonora Mitrofanova was elected Chairperson of UNESCO’s Executive Board (November).

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