Hope That Russia, US Can Find Common Ground Main Achievement of MSC

As the 53rd Munich Security Conference (MSC) wrapped up in the Bavarian capital on Sunday, Radio Sputnik discussed the major achievements of this year’s gathering with political analyst and Deputy Director of the Foreign Policy Institute in Ankara Huseyin Bagci, who is also a Valdai Discussion Club expert.

This year's meeting agenda focused on the future of transatlantic relations and NATO after the election of US President Donald Trump, Huseyin Bagci told Sputnik.

"The main achievement of this year's conference was [recognizing] that the US and Russia can work together, starting from Syria and moving on to many other international issues," he said.

There is no direct confrontation between the two countries, as some people suggested there would be, he noted, recalling that the meeting in 2007, when President Putin addressed the Conference, kicked off the debate around the new Cold War between the two states.

This year, the political analyst said, some people also expected that the US vice president would begin with a confrontational speech. But neither he, nor the defense secretary took this approach.

"I think that the Trump administration is now more involved with European countries, trying to bring fresh impetus to transatlantic relations," he further suggested.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he noted, was also "giving off the impression" that the US and the EU have common security interests and that transatlantic relations should be strengthened. There was also an indication that European countries are prepared meet the US demand to increase their defense expenditures.

Hence there is hope, Huseyin Bagci said, that with the new US administration many regional and global issues will be re-evaluated and people will start "re-adjusting themselves" to the new conditions. However, there is a chance that the so-called "Trump period" will become the most controversial period in US history since the Cold War ended, he suggested.

Apart from shifting the focus towards the relationship between the US and the EU, this year's conference also demonstrated that Moscow and Washington are able to find new ways of cooperation and sharing of certain interests, hence the first meeting between Presidents Putin and Trump will be of extreme importance, he noted.

Until then, the time of confusion will continue, but neither Trump nor Putin has stepped up any confrontational rhetoric towards each other. However there have been neither concrete disagreements voiced nor concrete common interests defined. It will only start to emerge now, where the two countries will go jointly and where they will differ.

It has nevertheless become clear that the two countries will stay together on Syria, jointly fighting against Daesh. With the meeting in Astana, Moscow and Washington have demonstrated that they have common political will, the political analyst said. Even UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura has noticed the good cooperation between the two states, he said. Bagci added that in the long run, the two countries could even agree on the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis.