/ world today news/ For the past few days since the beginning of the week, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a surprise Middle Eastern tour, including a visit to Syria, Turkey and Egypt. Russian foreign policy is particularly active in the volatile region, and Putin often hops on Ankara, Cairo or Tehran to discuss with his counterparts various aspects of international economic and political cooperation.
Against the background of the increasing visits of the Russian head of state abroad, on Tuesday, December 13, the Russian ambassador to Bulgaria Anatoly Makarov dashed the hopes of Bulgarian politicians competing to invite Putin to Bulgaria. Vladimir Putin will probably not attend the celebrations on the occasion of 140 years since the Liberation of Bulgaria, it became clear from a comment by Ambassador Makarov during a meeting with students from Sofia University. The signs of this were given long ago. “Simply the president arriving to drink tea or coffee with the Bulgarian president is not serious – it is nice, but I cannot say that this is the main purpose of the visit. We are discussing that the working part of the visit should be prepared, what can be prepared, specific projects should be considered”the diplomat hinted back in March. It is about the fact that a symbolic visit to our country should be linked to some development in the bilateral relations between Bulgaria and Russia, which are in an ice age. “This should not be just a tourist visit or a cultural visit of the President of Russia. A visit should be seriously prepared, at least that’s how I see it, with results that will have serious implications for the further development of our relations. To sign some contracts, to make some decisions”recalled Ambassador Makarov insistently in an interview for “Focus” a few days ago.
Modern Russian foreign policy is markedly pragmatic. She categorically rules out the possibility of Putin walking to Sofia as a sign of symbolic support for politicians who pledge allegiance to NATO and are complicit in the buildup of American troops and the conduct of military maneuvers near Russian borders. What exactly Moscow expects from Bulgaria is easy to see when compared with Vladimir Putin’s visits around the world – from Budapest and Athens to Cairo, Ankara or Beijing. The results of the two-day visit of the Russian head of state to Egypt, which ended this week, provide an answer to this question. It is about enhanced mutually beneficial cooperation with Russia, which Bulgaria diligently refuses under external pressure.
Putin’s trip to Cairo affected not only international security issues. Russia agreed to allow the Russian Aerospace Forces to use Egyptian bases, agreed with Cairo on coordinated military operations against terrorism, and received a nod from Egypt to its positions across the spectrum of Middle East crises, from Syria and Iraq to Libya and Israeli-Palestinian negotiations . However, all this happened against the background of a series of bilateral agreements in energy, tourism and agriculture, which were the real highlight of the visit.
Vladimir Putin did not travel to Egypt to see the pyramids. This is good for those who expect the Russian president to come to Bulgaria on March 3 to take pictures with the local comprador elite on Mount Shipka. The results of the visit to Cairo began with a Rosatom contract for the construction of Egypt’s first nuclear power plant. The Dabaa NPP on the Mediterranean coast will include four power units with a total capacity of 5,000 megawatts, worth $21 billion. 85% of the financing is provided by the Russian side. Russia is not just building a plant in Egypt, but intends to create an entire nuclear industry in the Arab country. The two countries have agreed to create a free trade zone between the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union and Egypt, the North African country’s president, Abdel Sisi, said in person. In addition, the two leaders agreed to move to trade based on national currencies, thus continuing the process of isolating the US dollar in international trade. The central banks of both countries are expected to start discussing the matter at an expert level. Moscow and Cairo also agreed on enhanced investment cooperation and joint steps in the fields of agriculture, energy, tourism and space technology, with Egypt’s access to the Russian global navigation system GLONASS. With all these moves, Russia continues its strategy to offer countries in Europe, Asia and Africa not controlled chaos imposed by wars and covert support for terrorism, but stability through enhanced mutually beneficial cooperation based on comprehensive Eurasian integration.
Against this background, the Bulgarian political elite makes the mistake of thinking that Vladimir Putin is trembling in anticipation of getting on Shipka, and Moscow is very concerned about Bulgaria. No, it isn’t. Bulgaria has fewer and fewer initiatives that it can offer to the Russian side. Gas from the failed South Stream project has been diverted to Turk Stream as well as to Nord Stream-2 along the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Russia’s energy plans in the region can be realized through the construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in Turkey. Enhanced cooperation with Ankara makes the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline project pointless. The “Grand Slam” of Bulgarian-Russian projects went into the hands of Turkish President Recep Erdogan, President Georgi Parvanov (2002-2012) concluded recently. Bulgaria was simply surrounded and the strategic importance of our country in Russian plans sharply decreased. Sofia still has hope for a “small slam”. It has not yet been agreed where the second pipe from the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, intended for European consumers, will pass. In the event that a route through our country is chosen, the facility with a design capacity of nearly 16 billion cubic meters of natural gas can compensate for transit fee losses after the launch of the direct connection from Russia to Turkey. In addition, all the equipment paid for by us for the construction of the Belene NPP will be delivered to Bulgaria in the coming weeks. The reactors are on the Bulgarian bank of the Danube and can have no other purpose than to work in a newly built Bulgarian nuclear power plant. This gives a chance to resuscitate the Bulgarian-Russian energy cooperation. As the Russian ambassador Anatoly Makarov stated, the possibility of Vladimir Putin arriving in Bulgaria next year is still not excluded. For this purpose, however, a breakthrough in Bulgarian-Russian relations is needed. One thing is certain – this will not happen over a cup of tea with the Bulgarian president.
#Lessons #Egypt #Putin #Bulgaria #March
