The New Nation - Internet Edition

Ding Ying

Gordon Brown has started his diplomatic road show. In making the rounds, the new British prime minister has to deal with his predecessor Tony Blair's unpopular diplomatic legacy such as Britain's support of the Iraq war. Brown has quickly turned his atention to bolstering relations with Britain's major allies.

During his first full month in office, Brown busied himself with relations with some of his country's biggest allies. Brown went to Germany for his first official foreign visit as prime minister on July 16, then to France. Several days later, the ongoing diplomatic tussle between Britain and Russia picked up steam, with the two countries dismissing each other's diplomats. Then in late July, Brown visited the United States for a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush.

Brown's visits show that he "will stick to the traditional diplomacy of 'three circles,' which is based on close relations with commonwealth nations, the United States and European countries," said Xing Hua, Director of Research Center of European Union with the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS).

Not only does Brown have to maintain diplomatic momentum with Britain's big political and economic ally, the United States, but also unlike his predecessor, he must strengthen Britain's ties with the EU. Because Russia never has been part of the "three circles," Brown must tackle heightened tensions with the country, and atain a balance power in Europe once again.

First, Germany and France

Right after he became prime minister, Brown visited Berlin and Paris in early July. Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are expected to form a new EU leadership triangle.

"Britain will pay much more atention to the EU's development rather than to its alliance with the United States," Xing said.

Currently, the EU faces five major challenges that will affect diplomatic relations between the continent's three heavy hiters. First, the EU's integrity has been set back by the vetoed EU constitution draft Second, the EU's future development lacks economic engine power. Third, the whole of Europe sees differences between "new Europe" and "old Europe," with the former preferring the U.S. shield on politics and security, while the later relies on independent diplomatic, political and security policies. Fourth, the EU is threatened by Russia's growing tough atitude. And last, the United States is strengthening its influence in Europe, which recently caused a dispute with Russia over the antimissile defense system that the Americans plan to establish in Eastern Europe.

Under such circumstances, Britain will stick to its traditional policy of balancing power with Germany and France and pay more atention to its cooperation with the EU. During his Berlin visit, Brown said that he would urge Britain's Parliament to approve the new EU treaty that creates a President of Europe and a single legal identity for the bloc, as soon as possible. Britain views the new treaty as a de facto constitution for the EU. The country's approval of the treaty would be a signal to the EU that Britain seeks to establish closer relations with Germany and France. If the new Britain-France-Germany alliance is established, the whole EU will be more united and a new balance of power between EU and the United States will emerge.

Tit-for-tat diplomacy

London and Moscow's diplomatic brawl was triggered in mid-July when Russian officials refused to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, the prime suspect in the poisoning case of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, a Russian-born British citizen. Lugovoi, also a former KGB officer, was accused of murdering Litvinenko by contaminating his tea with the radioactive isotope polonium-210.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on July 16 that Britain would expel four diplomats from the Russian Embassy in London because Moscow refused to comply with the extradition request In its defense, Russia cited its constitutional ban on turning citizens over to other nations as well as a European convention that lets signatories refuse to extradite their citizens. As a payback, Russia expelled four British diplomats.

Xing from the CIIS pointed out that the expulsions of diplomats by the two countries had not been uncommon after World War II.

"Actually, the whole extradition thing was only the last straw," he said, adding that the current tense situation was caused by the hard-line diplomatic policies of both sides.

But having survived the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the financial crisis in August 1998, Russia feels that now is the time to step out of fallow ground and re-emerge as a

world political and economic power. "With growing power, it will not allow limitations that are launched by Western countries any longer," Xing said, adding that Russia will pay much more atention to its own interests and its image in the world.

Russia now has conflicts with European countries mainly over two issues-energy and "color revolutions," Xing said.

As energy prices keep rising throughout the world, Russia, which possesses abundant oil and natural gas reserves, has been re-powered. It not only uses its energy supplies as a political weapon, but also as a new way to collect money. It has tried to maximize interests from its energy industry in two ways: first, by raising prices for the oil and natural gas that it transfers to European countries; and second, by demanding that big Russian energy companies participate in Europe's whole crude oil sale system, which means that Moscow wants to receive payments from each part of the supply chain instead of only at the original source.

Russia also believed that Britain and the United States were jointly squeezing its strategic space, due to the "color revolutions" in Ukraine and Georgia, Xing said. "Color revolutions" took place in countries in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Central Asia, which were traditionally under Russian influence. Those movements were mostly sponsored by the United States.

Experts, however, also believe that the tension between Britain and Russia will come under control, due to their closer economic relationship. Britain now is the biggest investor in Russia. During the first three months of 2007, Russia received a total investment of $3.1 billion from Britain, according to an article in London's The Times.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made a damage-control announcement on July 21, describing the diplomatic fight as a "mini-crisis" and predicted that the two countries would soon recover from the row.

"I think that Russian-British relations will develop normally," Putin said in a public statement on the crisis. "On both the Russian side and the British side, we are interested in the development of these relations."

According to a report in the British daily newspaper The Guardian, Russia's decision to limit the expulsions of British diplomats in Moscow to only four when it could have sent home as many as 80, indicated that it wanted to avoid a lengthy and harmful confrontation. Instead, Russia hopes that it can quietly rebuild its relationship with Britain in the autumn once the Lugovoi affair has died down, according to the report

Keeping a reachable distance America

Britain and the United States kept extremely close ties during Blair's term, but it still remains to be seen whether Brown will maintain this relationship, which brought Britain both benefits and troubles. When Brown made his first official visit as prime minister to the United States in late July, he met with Bush at Camp David to discuss the two countries' mutual interests and concerns. They talked about hot issues in the world, including terror threats, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran's nuclear crisis and the conflicts in Darfur, Sudan.

Due to their common interests, the two countries will not head in opposite directions, but Brown will use a different approach in his diplomatic relations with the United States, Xing said.

Blair has kept a close personal relationship with Bush. His departure after 10 years at his post was believed to be one reason for increasing public opposition to his support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

"Brown is clear that some of Blair's policy about America was not supported by the people, and some even brought troubles to Britain. He will keep some distance from the Bush administration on certain issues, while sharing common interests," Xing said, stressing that Brown would at least make their alliance look as close as before.

"The United Kingdom and the United States work in a partnership that I believe will strengthen in the years to come," Brown said at a joint press conference with Bush at the U.S. presidential retreat

Britain has approximately 5,500 troops in south Iraq, according to Xinhua News Agency. British Defense Secretary Des Browne said in early July that Britain would reduce its troops in Iraq to 5,000 within weeks and then consider how to withdraw the remaining contingent Whether or not Britain will pull out from Iraq, and when, are now considered a signal of future relations between London and Washington.