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US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has deflected a stinging broadside against the United States by Russian President Vladimir Putin, declaring: “One Cold War was quite enough.”
The new US defence chief used wry humour in his debut speech Sunday to an international security conference to deflate Putin's portrayal of the United States before the same audience as a dangerous, destabilising world power.
Gates also sought to mend fences with Europeans alienated by his predecessor Donald Rumsfeld. He acknowledged past US mistakes and said Washington needed to do a better job of explaining its policies.
“Speaking of issues going back many years, as an old Cold Warrior, one of yesterday's speakers almost filled me with nostalgia for a less complex time. Almost,” said Gates, before adding: “One Cold War was quite enough.”
Gates, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said the world was more complex today than during the Cold War and that partnerships with other countries, including Russia, needed to face common problems and a new challenge from Islamic extremism.
“Let me repeat there is no desire for a new Cold War with Russia and one is completely unnecessary,” he said during a question-and-answer session.
“I have, like your second speaker (Putin) yesterday, a career in the spy business. And I guess old spies have a habit of blunt speaking,” he said.
The new US defence secretary also made a pointed reference to Rumsfeld, who had antagonised European powers by dividing the NATO alliance into countries that supported the US invasion in Iraq and those that did not.
“Over the years, people have tried to put the nations of Europe and of the alliance into different categories,” he said. “And I am told that some have even spoken in terms of 'old' Europe versus 'new'.”
“All of these characterisations belong to the past,” he said.
In response to a question however Gates bluntly warned that a US failure in Iraq would hurt all NATO countries.
“There may be great disagreement in this room in how we got to where we are, but the reality is, as of today, failure in Iraq will impact every country represented in this room,” Gates said.
He said that scandals at the Guantanamo US “war on terror” prison and at US-run jails in Iraq have damaged the reputation of the United States, but he defended trials of terrorist suspects by special military commissions as legitimate.
“While I don't have any doubt that in certain quarters there may be anti-American propaganda. But I think we also have made some mistakes, and not presented our case as well as we'd like in many instances.”
“I think we have more work to do in terms of restrengthening American soft power around the world.”
Putin on Saturday stunned top officials and academics at the security conference with a vehement attack on US leadership in the world.
A former KGB spy, Putin charged that the United States has “overstepped its borders in all spheres,” creating a dangerous “uni-polar” world that had brought war, ruin and insecurity.
He questioned the intentions behind NATO expansion eastward into countries that once formed part of the Soviet Union, and US plans for missile defence systems in Poland and the Czech Republic, both former Soviet bloc states.
Gates in contrast said Russia was “a partner in endeavours” adding that he had accepted an invitation from Putin and Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov to visit Russia.
“But we wonder too about some Russian policies that seem to work against international stability, such as its arms transfers and its temptation to use energy resources for political coercion,” he said.
Russia “need not fear law-based democracies on its border,” he said.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov denied Sunday that Putin had meant to be aggressive, saying it was a sign of the maturity of Russia's relations with NATO countries.
“That happened because our relations with the European Union, the United States and especially Germany are so mature, that we're free to say what we really think, openly, frankly, without any hypocrisy and Cold War thinking,” Ivanov said.
“I don't think it was aggressive and confrontational at all.”
