The new United States government will follow a foreign policy based on its stated ideals of democracy and cooperation, US Vice-President Joe Biden told world leaders at the Munich Security Conference, but in return will demand more support from its key allies, especially in Europe. In the first major foreign- policy speech in Europe for the administration of US President Barack Obama, he intimated that the European Union must do more than call for the US to bend its will, after NATOSecretary- General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer laid into the EU for not sending more troops to Afghanistan to fight the war on terror. Repeating a Barack campaign mantra, Biden told an audience of some 350 top politicians from around the world that for the US, “The example of our power must be matched by the power of our example, that’s why our administration rejects the false choice between safety and ideals,” “We will defend our security and our values, and we believe we will all be more secure.”

As an example, he pledged to fight terrorism and extremism only by legal means. “America will not torture, America will uphold the rights of those brought to justice, and we will close the facility in Guantanamo,” he said, talking about the terrorist suspect detention camp the EU has demanded be closed. But at the same time, the US will ask European partners to help, including by taking in some of the current detainees held in Guantanamo, he said, which the EU does not want to do. “Our security is shared - as is our responsibility to defend it,” he said.

Scheffer said the EU has had a one-sided policy and that if Europe wants a greater voice, it needs to do more. “The Obama administration has already done a lot of what Europeans have asked for including announcing the closure of Guantanamo and a serious focus on climate change,” he said. “Europe should also listen; when the United States asks for a serious partner, it does not just want advice, it wants and deserves someone to share the heavy lifting.” He said that the same principle applies to Russian requests to be involved in Washington’s plans to place a missile defense system in Eastern Europe.

THE MISSILES OF JANUARY

Later, Biden said the US will consult with Russia before it makes any move to deploy elements of the missile-defence system in Europe, but said the US will push ahead with the system, as long as it works and is not too expensive. “We will continue to develop missile defence, provided the technology is proven and it is cost-effective. We will do so in consultation with ... our NATO allies and with Russia,” Biden said. The plans to site elements of the defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic drawn up by former US president George W Bush have enraged Russia, which sees them as a threat to its own security.

Biden admitted that there had been a “dangerous drift” in the relationship between NATO and Russia, and called on the West to “press the re-set button and re-visit the many areas where we can and should be working together with Russia.” But he insisted that the US would never allow Russia to claim a “sphere of influence” in Eastern Europe, nor recognise the independence of the breakaway Georgian territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which Russia acknowledged after winning a brief battle over them with NATO hopeful Georgia. Despite the differences, “America and Russia can still disagree and work together where their interests coincide - and they coincide in many places,” Biden said.

ON IRAN

Biden also said the US is prepared to hold talks with Iran, but will continue to block the country from building a nuclear bomb. “We will be willing to talk. We will be willing to talk to Iran and offer a clear choice,” said Biden, reiterating the new US position toward Iran. But he also warned that the United States will not tolerate an Iran with nuclear weapons. “Continue down the current course and there will be continued pressure and isolation,” said Biden.

Biden’s comments echo those made by Obama during his inauguration, in which Obama promised to offer an open hand to any nation that unclenched its fist. They also came a day after the speaker of Iran’s parliament, Ali Larijani, told the Munich conference that Iran welcomes the overtures from the Obama administration, but expressed skepticism that the new administration equaled a change in US policy.

At the conference, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she’s ready to impose more sanctions on Iran if the country does not open up its controversial nuclear programme to UN inspectors. “We are ready to adopt stricter sanctions: it’s a must that we prevent Iran having nuclear weapons,” Merkel said. International efforts to bring Iran into line with UN rules on nuclear non-proliferation are a “litmus test” for the global community, she said. Merkel also called on the EU and NATO to create a joint security policy which includes military, political and civilian elements, and to cooperate with Russia on security and disarmament.

And while she called on the EU, of which Germany is the biggest member, to play a more active role in the global debate on nuclear and conventional disarmament, she stressed that the new Obama administration. “We want a diplomatic solution, there are offers on the table. The new US administration will tell us how they see this: we are ready to cooperate with you in pursuing this,” she said. A number of top diplomats including the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, urged the global community to do more to fight nuclear proliferation.

“My impression from Washington is that, after a long freeze, the administration is prepared to enter into a direct dialogue with Iran,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said. Larijani, retorted that it was up to Obama to change his policies towards the Islamic republic. The Bush administration “burned many bridges. A new White House can rebuild them, but it requires new pragmatic strategies based on respect and fair play: the carrot and stick must be discarded,” he said.

ARMS CONTROL

Obama offers the world a rare chance to cut back on nuclear weapons, some of his country’s greatest rivals said in Munich. But in order to take that chance, the US will have to scale back its own ambitions, top officials from Russia and Iran said. Obama’s election and his call for nuclear arsenals to be cut back is a “window of opportunity” for the US and Russia to come to a new deal on arms reduction, Russian deputy premier Sergey Ivanov told the VIP audience.

The end of the Bush regime is a “golden opportunity” for the US to change its stance on Iran’s controversial nuclear programme, Ali Larijani, said. “The US should appreciate that the countries of the (Middle East) region are calling for a chess game, not a boxing match,” he said. The current head of the US House of Representatives’ strategic forces sub-committee, Ellen Tauscher, answered that Obama “wants to work on the elimination of nuclear weapons and repair the badly-damaged armscontrol regime.” The US should lead global talks for a ban on the production of nuclear material, ratify a treaty banning nuclear testing and “engage in immediate unconditional direct negotiations with North Korea and Iran” over their nuclear programmes, she said.

Former US secretary of State and Nobel Peace Prize winner Henry Kissinger said, “As proliferation continues in Iran ... in the face of all ongoing negotiations, the incentives for other countries to follow the same path will become overwhelming,” Kissinger warned some of the world’s top leaders at the annual conference.

But India’s national-security advisor, Mayankote Kelath Narayanan, warned that his country would not trade its nuclear weapons for anything less than a guarantee of a nuclear-free world. “While nuclear weapons are a dreaded item, for some of us the questions relating to their control, reduction and elimination are not a matter of academic debate, they involve serious and vital questions of national security,” he said. International diplomatic efforts are “not about blocking a country from its right to peaceful use of atomic energy. Rather, it is about preventing the cover of peaceful work from being used to build up a military programme,” Steinmeier stressed.

Ivanov stepped back from confrontation, stressing that his country would only deploy missiles in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad if the US missile system were deployed. And Tauscher echoed his tone, saying that the US Congress “does not believe that the (missile-defence) system is effective” and would not approve its deployment unless it were shown to work.

Steinmeier also noted that the focus on controlling the spread of nuclear weapons should be not be limited exclusively to Iran. International diplomatic efforts are “not about blocking a country from its right to peaceful use of atomic energy. Rather, it is about preventing the cover of peaceful work from being used to build up a military programme,” Steinmeier said.