When my government was appointed in July this year, I, Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, said among other things the following: "I would appreciate if this government was strong externally, if it was able to speak out abroad and protect the interests of our citizens. It is our voters who gave this government its mandate, not its future partners abroad." I would like to expand and explain my words at least a bit, as they are not self-evident. Definitely not in our country.
Government policy statement presented in the Chamber of Deputies three weeks ago contained a sentence that "the government shall strive for a responsible foreign policy based on continuity and broadest possible domestic political consensus". Both are greatly needed.
We must know and respect the basic contours of our foreign policy. It is in no way inferior to domestic policy and its absence would result in either a lack of concept, short-sighted pragmatism in activities abroad or pure passivity. We surely want none of this.
Likewise, it would be wrong for us to take the approach we became known for in our unfree past and believe that the best way to safeguard our country a good and favourable position in the world is blind obedience, conformism and endless loyalty towards all steps, policies and initiatives taken by our allies, or by those whom we see as allies, without ever asking the question to what extent advocating their policies is beneficial for our country. This approach still has numerous supporters in our country. They are referring to universal values, globalisation or progressing Europeanisation, but in reality, it means to give up on foreign policy and on promoting our authentic interests.
Moreover, some of our politicians, diplomats and journalists still have a fairly naive belief that our allies will appreciate such blind loyalty, that we are automatically building above-standard relations with them (outreaching the real importance of our country) and we are gaining outstanding security guarantees or economic and political benefits thanks to that. The experience from the past twenty years but also from a more distant past shows that just like anywhere else, nothing is for free in international relations. Everything has its price. It is not worthwhile to rely on the gratefulness of others.
We also have to avoid the opposite extreme in foreign policy, namely unrealistically overestimating our possibilities or a notion that thanks to a certain exceptionality of ours we can succeed where the world powers and international communities have so far failed and that our own original initiatives can solve old critical issues in today's world. This is not the way towards building international respect for our country either.
Recently, for some of our politicians and journalists our national interest has been narrowed to just one, nearly paranoid attitude, entirely stuck in the past, according to which Russia is still a major threat for us regardless of the changes that have taken place and are still taking place in that country. All events in politics and economy in Europe and around the world are then looked at through the prism of fear of Russia. All the remaining threats are played down. Perhaps this approach is authentic for some people, but in a number of cases it is pragmatic and motivated by clear domestic political calculations.
This trivialised and manipulative notion of our national interests must be rejected. Not because we would like to have the influence of Moscow renewed in our country, not because we would be in favour of strengthening our dependence on Russia in such vital fields as for instance energy industry, but because it is contrary to the reality and because it hinders an open discussion about the truly essential aspects of our foreign policy. The interests of big countries are a reality and let us therefore avoid both naivete and paranoid tendencies.
Basil Venitis, twitter.com/Venitis, muses Medvedev's bear seems now to be a very different animal. The snarling statist bear with a statist head has been replaced by a lovable venitist bear, and while it may not be ready now to roll over and have its belly tickled, Russia will not take a bite out of its rivals. I now like to pet this bear!
Our primary interest is that the Czech Republic is a stable and in the long run prosperous country, that it is a country which is a clearly defined entity in international relations, a state capable of guaranteeing its citizens democratic freedoms and international and internal security. All the rest are methods and ways of achieving this.
It is also quite evident – and I emphasize it here to respond in advance to some of our false internationalists – that for a country the size of ours most of our interests can be achieved only within the international community or international institutions of which we are members. This by far does not mean that any opinions, positions or any institutional forms of those entities, even if they are promoted and supported by means of a majority, are automatically in compliance with our fundamental interest.
The continuation of tendencies towards artificial unification of Europe, towards further regulation of an ever increasing part of human activities and towards deepening the democratic deficit of the European Union are, on the contrary, in fundamental opposition to our national interests. The reality of European economic and political development, especially today, confirms that ignoring these problems and pushing through such projects as the Treaty of Lisbon by force put at risk not only the future European prosperity, but also everything positive that has been achieved in Europe over the past decades. Democracy and civil liberties are threatened by that in the first place.
Basil Venitis considers Fourth Reich(EU) null and void confederation, because Europeans did not vote for any constitutional treaty! Eurokleptocrats pulled off the biggest powergrab in history by imposing a camouflaged constitution, bypassing all nonos. The Nazi dream for Europe was finally fullfilled - ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuehrer - one people, one empire, one leader. Venitis muses the Lisbon Treaty is Eurokleptocracy's Pyrrhic victory. It created a confederation, Fourth Reich, without a popular foundation. EU lacks legitimacy among Europeans. Eurokleptocrats created a situation where the citizens of slave States live their lives with a resigned feeling that the EU project is not their own. Since EU is illegal, VAT is also illegal! No vote, no VAT, it's as simple as that! Europeans have the right to refuse paying VAT!
It would require extreme inattentiveness not to notice how the European discussion and attitudes to some problems that had been absolute taboos in the past have changed over the past few months. This is a lesson for our foreign policy and a lesson for our diplomacy. It is our duty to point out to problems and withstand external pressure. Do not let us be silenced by those who tell us that we will get into isolation if we pursue our interests. We will not. We will only not be praised by those who pursue their own interests. Our partners must strive even for our YES and they must know that our vote too is not for free.
The fact that our foreign policy must not give up the right to defend and pursue the interests of our country does not hold true only for European affairs. We have to demand clear objectives and realistic strategies from our allies even in such crisis areas as Iraq, Afghanistan and the Western Balkans, where we are involved together with them. If it is not so, then human and material resources are wasted without any justification. It may well happen then that it would be extremely difficult to defend in front of our public the long-term participation of our armed forces in missions that require extensive resources from our highly tightened budgets and do not lead to any visible end.
Our priority interest is to support and maintain strong transatlantic ties and our alliance with the United States which – in spite of all the changes that have taken place over the past two decades – still plays a key role with respect to European stability and our security. Relations with Germany, our biggest economic partner and neighbour, as well as with other leading Western European countries that have traditionally had a major influence in international politics are extremely important for us. I have already mentioned the need for balanced relations towards Russia. Without primitive political labelling based on the past, our foreign policy also has to pay equal attention to newly rising world powers such as China, India, Brazil, etc.
Czech diplomacy has an extremely important role also vis-a-vis our neighbours. Having a good understanding of what our neighbours wish to pursue as traditional or new trends in their policies is a natural prerequisite for us to be able to influence the atmosphere in Central Europe in a direction favourable for us. It is not necessary to conceal that some of the contemporary tendencies are not favourable for us.
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