Sam Coates, Charles Bremner and Giles Whittell
From: The Australian May 28, 2011 10:05AM
G8 leaders pose for a photograph with other delegates at the G8 summit in Deauville, northwestern France, yesterday. Picture: AFP
Source: AFP
RUSSIA took the side of Britain and France over Libya for the first time yesterday as President Medvedev endorsed calls for Colonel Gaddafi to leave office and offered to help to negotiate his exit.
Downing Street and the White House both expressed surprise and delight at the shift in his position at the G8 summit in Deauville, after Russia's previous reluctance and internal criticism for the decision to abstain rather than veto UN resolution 1973 authorising military action.
The final G8 declaration contained tougher-than-expected language after changes late on Thursday night. It read: "[Gaddafi] has no future in a free, democratic Libya. He must go." Sergei Ryabkov, the deputy Russian foreign minister, went farther, saying: "We think that Gaddafi has stripped himself of his legitimacy and it is necessary to help him leave."
In March, the country's position on Libya opened a rare rift in the Kremlin with Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, comparing the UN-backed mission to "medieval crusades" and President Medvedev describing his remark as "unacceptable".
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Russia's huge trading ties with Libya, in particular its arms trade worth an estimated $US4 billion ($3.74 billion), coupled with its traditional reluctance to endorse criticism of other sovereign nations, led to a reticence to adopt a tougher stance.
British Prime Minister David Cameron was much cooler towards Russia's suggestion that it could mediate a ceasefire leading to Colonel Gaddafi's exit, saying that the proposal was not raised at his meeting with the Russian President.
The US has been urged to release more of its firepower to the Libya mission, notably its A10 Warthog "tankbuster" aircraft and heavily armed AC130 Specter gunships.
Yesterday it emerged that Mr Cameron was likely to make an early visit to Benghazi, the rebel stronghold and seat of the Interim National Council, a fact let slip by President Sarkozy in his press conference. In the latest in a series of British announcements pre-empted by the French, Mr Sarkozy said: "I and [Alain Juppe, the Foreign Minister] will go when the time comes. It should be a Franco-British visit. It could be quite clumsy if it was a separate visit."
Mr Cameron sidestepped questions about a visit, although officials did not deny that it was under consideration. He also made clear his frustration over Syria, as he conceded that he was unlikely to get an international consensus to step up pressure on President Assad. This led to weaker than expected wording over Syria and contained only the threat of "further measures" rather than a specific mention of sanctions,
At the closing press conference he said: "We've been in the vanguard of pushing for travel bans and UN sanctions. The difficulty is there isn't the same unity in the Arab world for action and there is a sense from some other countries, particularly those that have dealings with them, that there is still a fork in the road where Assad can choose reform rather than repression."
Mr Cameron made clear that he did not agree with this assessment.
There was agreement on $20 billion of new loans and loan guarantees for Egypt and Tunisia proposed by the US. It includes $5.5 billion from the World Bank, $2.5 billion a year from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and $8.5 billion from the European Investment Bank.
Mr Cameron attacked fellow world leaders for breaking their promises on aid to developing countries. This follows a report prepared for the G8 summit which showed that Britain's aid spending last year as a proportion of the economy was twice the G8 average. "I cannot guarantee the Italians or the Germans or whoever else will meet the promise that they make," he said.
The Times
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