asked Her Majesty’s Government:
What is their response to the outcome of the European Union-Russia summit held in Samara on 18 May.
My Lords, the EU-Russia summit was held on 17 and 18 May as planned and covered a broad agenda, including international relations, energy, climate change and trade. The EU raised human rights. The summits are important, as they allow both sides to engage on issues that are important to them, including areas of disagreement.
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply. Does he welcome as I do the achievement of a common position in relation to Russia by the EU on this occasion in a period when it is clear that the Russian Government and major Russian state companies are trying to pick off European states one by one? I note in today’s Financial Times, for example, that Alexander Medvedev, the international director of Gazprom, says:
“I don't want to interfere in the practice of the European community and its policy co-ordination … but”—
and he then goes on to praise Austria for considering a bilateral deal. Is it not clearly in Britain’s national interests, given our gas interests, the Litvinenko case and others, to pursue a common position towards an increasingly difficult Russia?
My Lords, it is fair to say that in the recent past the Russians have been successful in dividing the European Union and picking which nations they wanted to deal with more sympathetically than others. On this occasion they did not have that luxury; the European Union was completely united on all the fundamental issues. It is likely that President Putin understands that the days of division among us have probably come to an end.
My Lords, earlier the noble Lord, Lord Davies, talked about the great benefits of working with our EU partners on foreign policy. Given that the EU-Russia summit appeared to end in complete acrimony—that was the report in most newspapers—did we have any level of Foreign and Commonwealth Office representation at that unfortunate meeting? While I think we all recognise that at the moment the Russians are very tricky to deal with on a number of fronts, ought we not in this case—whatever the benefits of the EU foreign policy may be elsewhere—to develop more effectively our own links, including relying less on Gazprom, which is a surrogate of the Russian Government, and more on our Norwegian friends and other suppliers of LNG, which would give us a much safer energy future than that into which some of our neighbours in the European Union seem to be heading?
My Lords, we were fully involved in the summit and the discussions. I repeat the point about the benefits of the EU in this political circumstance as it might not have come through in the rather frisky earlier Question that the House so much enjoyed. The EU stayed together and made an important impact on Russia’s thinking. I am in complete agreement with the noble Lord about diversity of energy supply. That point is made in the White Paper. The reality is that we plainly cannot allow ourselves to be put in a position where our energy supplies are wholly or substantially dependent on one supplier who is proving difficult in commercial arrangements.
My Lords, is my noble friend aware that those who say that this was an unfortunate meeting between the EU and Russia and that we could do a lot better on our own make a false antithesis? There may have to be hard talking between the EU and Russia but that is no bad thing. At some point the Russian people may want to become more like people in the rest of Europe. Culturally, they are very much a European people. In Sub-Committee C of the European Union Committee—the sub-committee is chaired by the noble Lord, Lord Roper—we are endeavouring to study EU-Russia relations.
My Lords, like everybody else in the House, I look forward to hearing the result of those deliberations. We approach relations with Russia pragmatically. We try to advance the interests of our country and to make clear that our values are fundamental to the work we do. Those values do not go in a pragmatic relationship, nor should they. It is helpful when the European Union is pulling in the same direction around the same values and on this occasion it has been more effective in doing so. I hope that in due course the people of Russia may look at these values and consider that they might be better ones with which to live.
My Lords, will the Government and their European partners continue to resist undue and disproportionate Russian interference in the affairs of its immediate neighbours?
My Lords, as regards the most recent examples of that intervention in the relocation of war memorials in Estonia and the food situation in Poland, we have indicated our complete and unequivocal support for both those nations. I am sure that the war memorials issue can be dealt with properly and sensitively. I have absolutely no doubt that the arrangements for the export and import of food can be achieved through proper commercially binding agreements.
My Lords, do the Government support the statement put out by the German presidency in the wake of the Samara conference, from which I quote:
“In the energy sector … both sides are keen to co-operate more closely in the future”?
How on Earth does that square with what the noble Lord has been telling us this afternoon, or with what the Prime Minster has written in the Times today, that,
“we are now faced with countries such as Russia, who are prepared to use their energy resources as an instrument of policy”?
Surely to goodness there must be some consistency in the statements that are made about these conferences.
My Lords, I reject completely the idea that this is not consistent, and if it is unclear I will make it clearer. The reality is that there should be a commercial relationship in which there is a supplier prepared to sell in a proper market and consumers prepared to purchase in a proper market. That is how it should be looked at, and that is what we urge on the Russians. If they choose to use energy as a power implement in other ways, that is unacceptable. Both wings of that argument are wholly consistent.