A Good Opportunity

Angela Merkel's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi was not expected to produce concrete results anyway. It's too early for that. The German chancellor assumed the presidency over the EU Council and the G8 only three weeks ago, which means that she now has more than five months to move forward the EU's relations with Russia on the important topic of energy.

Despite a lack of tangible results, the Sochi meeting was a successful curtain-raiser for both sides. Putin and Merkel exchanged their views in an open, but friendly, tone, and they stressed that they wanted to work together on the energy issue. That's was the right thing to do because energy relations between Russia and the EU are not a zero-sum game. In their mutual exchange, Russia and the EU can either both win or both lose.

Russian energy imports will remain crucial for the EU and Germany, in particular, if it continues on its path of opposition to nuclear energy. At the same time, however, Russia won't be able to find alternative buyers for its massive energy exports in the foreseeable future. And even though China and other Asian countries will play an important role as additional buyers for Russian energy in the future, a complete rerouting of Russian energy supplies to Asia would be unthinkable. The Sochi meeting showed that both Merkel and Putin understood this and that they were both interested in improving and contractually safeguarding their energy relations.

That is why Putin should take advantage of the opportunity offered to Russia by the German EU presidency. Even with Angela Merkel as chancellor, Germany is still Putin's most Russian-friendly dialog partner in the EU. Merkel is also -- as opposed to France's Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who are both past their political prime -- one of the most powerful politicians in the EU. Russia could hardly expect a better and politically more practical offer for its energy relations with the EU in the next few years.

But the same is true for the EU: German-friendly Putin will stay in office for only another year and a half. It is not clear yet, who his successors will be and what positions they will take. Merkel and Putin have difficult negotiations ahead of them. But they had a good start in Sochi: tough in substance, but friendly in tone.

Ingo Mannteufel is head of DW-WORLD.DE/Russian and managing editor of DW-WORLD.DE (tt)