Prague Summit: Rebuilding Relations

Prague hosted its most important political event since the 2002 NATO summit, as US President Barack Obama and the 27 heads of government from the EU countries descended on the city for the one day US-EU summit on 5 April.

Following the G20 summit in London and the NATO summit in Strasbourg and Kehl just days before, the US-EU summit in the Czech capital represented the final part of a rather unusual “triple-header” of major international conferences in immediate succession.

The Prague summit gave Obama a chance to spend an additional day with almost all of the “usual suspects” and European political heavyweights, with whom he had been huddling since London.

Although the US-EU gathering was only scheduled as a two-hour event for Sunday afternoon, Obama arrived in Prague on Saturday evening, to a full ceremonial welcome at Ruzyně airport from Czech President Václav Klaus and caretaker Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek.

Bilateral meetings with the Czech president and prime minister ahead of Obama’s speech were likely little more than formal diplomatic courtesy calls: After all, the US president is known to share precious little common ground with Klaus on environmental issues, since the latter has openly questioned the threat of global warming. Likewise, Topolánek recently lashed out at Obama's economic stimulus package in front of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, calling the US stimulus bill a "way to hell."

Both Klaus and Topolánek however seemed energized by their meeting with Obama and later in the morning were among the front-row listeners for the US president’s address, together with a capacity crowd of 30,000 on the square directly adjacent to the castle. Czech police had to close off the fully packed venue shortly after 10am, and thousands of overflow spectators quickly filled up several of the adjacent streets as well.

Breaking with his predecessor

In his roughly 30-minute speech, Obama surprised many analysts and positively flattered most of the local Czech listeners, by referencing a great deal of Czech history and culture in his address. He discussed 2009 in the context of the 10th anniversary of Czech membership in NATO and then made the bridge to the 21st century and to contemporary international security concerns.

As had been announced, he used the occasion of the speech to break with the politics of his predecessor by offering a revised US role in leading a global push for renewed arms control initiatives and nuclear weapons reductions.

Specifically, Obama announced his intention to negotiate a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia, to aggressively pursue US ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and to internationally strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Also in terms of the Bush administration’s previous plans for a missile defense shield in Central Europe, Obama offered his listeners a first general statement, when he commented toward the end of his speech: “So let me be clear: Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile activity poses a real threat, not just to the United States, but to Iran’s neighbors and our allies. The Czech Republic and Poland have been courageous in agreeing to host a defense against these missiles. As long as the threat from Iran persists, we will go forward with a missile defense system that is cost-effective and proven. If the Iranian threat is eliminated, we will have a stronger basis for security, and the driving force for missile defense construction in Europe will be removed.”

These statements on missile defense match the expectations of several political observers and security experts. Jiří Schneider,  program director of the Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI) told ISN Security Watch ahead of Obama’s arrival to Prague, that he expected Obama to handle the inherited issue of missile defense based on how the Russian and Iranian context would develop.

Reshaping trans-Atlantic relations

With the public part of his day’s schedule completed with the conclusion of his speech by the late morning, Obama and his convoy were able to relocate for the afternoon to the modern conference center near the Vyšehrad ramparts across town for the commencement of the actual US-EU summit.

At the summit Obama had the chance to also formally meet with EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso for bilateral discussions, while US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met  with her 27 European counterparts.  While the summit made a point out of not rehashing all the previous issues already discussed and covered by many of the same participants at the G20 and NATO gatherings during the preceding days, some aspects of the global financial crisis and also international security cooperation were nevertheless repeated.

While for the US side the call to mobilize the Europeans to commit to greater involvement and higher troop numbers in Afghanistan was particularly pronounced, for both sides in turn the North Korean missile launch from the very same morning also caused new grounds for discussion and considerations of appropriate counter-measures by the UN Security Council.

Other topics covered were further also the pending closure of the Guantanamo Bay detainment center and US demands for corresponding European help, plus the environment and US participation in the forthcoming climate change conference in Copenhagen.

While for Obama and several of his European colleagues, the summit afforded the opportunity to come into personal contact for the first time, the main goal of the meeting was to mutually reshape and comprehensively rebuild trans-Atlantic relations, after the often difficult and unconstructive exchanges during the eight years of the Bush administration.  Although much unity was displayed and much agreement and common ground was found, even prompting Topolánek, also in his function as the official president of the EU, to speak of a “new quality” in EU and US relations, several relevant issues of contention remained.

Cold Turkey

On one issue the opinions between Obama and his counterparts differed quite strongly, namely on the matter of Turkish membership in the EU.

While Obama had told the summit participants and EU leaders his vision of a Turkish inclusion in the EU, by stating: "[T]he United States and Europe must approach Muslims as our friends, neighbors and partners in fighting injustice, intolerance and violence, forging a relationship based on mutual respect and mutual interest. Moving forward towards Turkish membership in the EU would be an important signal of commitment to this agenda and ensure that we can continue to anchor Turkey firmly in Europe[...].”

French President Nicholas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were quick to bark at those suggestions and stated their determined opposition to full Turkish EU membership, highlighting their preference for a preferred partnership status, also in light of the most recent Turkish attempts at the NATO summit to block Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen from becoming the next NATO secretary general.

Ironically for Obama, his support and lobbying for Turkey should bode well for him on the final stop of his one week trip, as the last stop and fourth leg is no other place than Turkey, with Ankara and Istanbul as the scheduled destinations.