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Javier Solana
Vlast analytical weekly and radio station Echo of Moscow continue their joint Authorities project. This time, Europe's main diplomat, High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, will be spotlighted.
Negotiator
Javier Solana can be called the European Union's chief negotiator. He is the authorized representative of the six-nations (the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) in negotiations with Iran. He takes part in settling the Middle Eastern crisis. Under the new European Union Constitution, he will become the head of the EU Foreign Ministry, with a budget of ˆ26 billion. Although that constitution has not been passed yet, Solana in practice already serves the function of EU foreign minister. His influence in that organization is seen from the fact that he makes foreign policy decisions single-handedly, without consulting the chairman of the EU or the commissioner for external relations.
Another confirmation of his unique position occurred in July 2004. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon refused to meet with Solana after the EU member states voted in the UN for a resolution condemning Israel. Solana, who was EU representative for external relations and security at the time, stated in response, to the world's amazement, that the EU and he personally would continue to be involved in the Middle Eastern settlement process, whether Israel wanted it or not. Sharon backed down.
“He is not an advocate of showy gestures, but creates the impression of a classical diplomat – very cautious and reserved. He tries not to spoil relations with his partner, even if he is taking a diametrically opposed position. Solana can say harsh things to his partner and smile the whole time,” Kommersant reporter Gennady Sysoev wrote of his many meetings with Solana while he worked in Brussels in 1998 and 1999. “Physically, he is unimpressive, short and impassive. But he knows to convince his interlocutor in a conversation. Yugoslavian politicians said that it was hard to contradict anything he said because, in spite of his mild manner, he always got his way.”
“He's a born negotiator,” PACE chairman Rene Van der Linden commented. “From time to time he builds bridges, seeks solutions. Those are not always solutions that last for a long time. He is very smart and experience in solving different problems. But a real leader needs to know how to show the forces where to go. I'm afraid he lacks that now.”
Physicist
In his youth, he seemed an unlikely future diplomat. Francisco Javier Solana Madariaga was born on July 14, 1942, into a scholarly family. His father was a well-known chemist and his mother was the biographer of Francis Bacon and author of the controversial book Francis Bacon: The History of a Character Assassination. “My childhood was spent in an atmosphere of scientific research and heightened interest in scientific knowledge,” Solana recalled in one interview. “My father was a professor of chemistry, and I loved to watch him conduct experiments. He took me with him to the university many times. But I was more interested in physics because it allowed me to understand the theory of relativity that was so fashionable at the time and to find answers to questions about the nature of the universe.”
Solana entered the physics department of Complutense University in Madrid and studied brilliantly until 1963, when he was expelled for opposition to the Franco regime. Speaking fluent French and English, he went to Great Britain to continue his studies, and received a master's degree in physics from Oxford. Soon after that, Solana received a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship and went to the United States to work, receiving a doctorate in physics from the University of Virginia five years later. He published more than 30 works on solid-state physics during his academic career.
Parallel with his academic career, Solana was active in the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, which he joined in 1964. He was elected to the Spanish parliament for five consecutive terms beginning in 1977. “My departure from science was not spontaneous,” he recalled later. “It took place gradually. I am a native of Spain, where the fight for freedom was an important part of the life of my generation. I took part in that fight and thus entered politics.”
Solana was minister of culture from December 1982 to July 1998, after Spanish Socialist Workers' Party general secretary Felipe Gonzalez became head of state. He was then minister of education and an official state representative before becoming a diplomat in 1992, when he was named Spanish foreign minister.
NATO Secretary General
Solana was appointed secretary general of NATO on November 30, 1995. U.S. congressmen were ardently opposed to his candidacy because he was known as a pro-Marxist politician and a sympathizer with the Castro regime in Cuba. He had been one of the main opponents of NATO in Spain and had even written a pamphlet entitled Fifty Reasons to Say No to NATO.
But Solana's views had changed over time. Practically everyone acknowledges the success of his NATO leadership. “He headed NATO when that organization was experiencing a crisis. At the end of the 1990s, NATO turned into a discussion club where it was necessary to listen to the opinions of all members and come to a consensus before any decision was made. Of course, no military operation can operate effectively in those conditions. Solana's reforms prevented the organization from falling apart and turned it into a fast-reaction group,” Sysoev asserted.
The Yugoslavian campaign, which was entirely the responsibility of NATO, was in many regards also an operation to save the alliance. For the first time in its existence, a NATO secretary general was given the right to make single-handed decisions in leading a military operation. On January 30, 1999, Solana was given the opportunity to decide by himself whether or not to bomb Yugoslavia. “I agree with the decision of Javier Solana to do that,” U.S. President Bill Clinton told the American public on March 21, 1999, when NATO forces began the bombardment of Belgrade.
Solana also played an important role in the foundation of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, which the media dubbed Solania. Solana was long an opponent of Kosovan independence. He thought that both Kosovo and Montenegro should remain parts of Serbia to avoid further bloodshed. But he congratulated the Montenegrins on their independence from Serbia after the referendum there this year.
Friend
Although Solana left the sciences long ago, he maintained friendships with university classmates. He also has a close relationship with secretary of the Russian Security Council Igor Ivanov, whom he met while Ivanov was second secretary of the Russian embassy in Madrid. Not even the NATO bombardment of Yugoslavia disrupted their friendship.
Another quality that Solana is noted for is loyalty to those he works with. This is especially true for his assistant Cristina Gallach, who has worked for him since he was the foreign minister of Spain and worked for him while he was in NATO and now in the EU. He trusts her to such an extent that she has independently made important announcements in his name. They say in Brussels that Gallach is more than just an assistant. When Solana moved to Brussels in 1995, he did not bring his wife Concepcion, son Diego or daughter Vega with him, saying that he had too much work.
Euro-Atlantist
Solana's term as NATO secretary general ended in December 1999, but he left that post two months early to become the EU's first High Commissioner for Common Foreign and Security Policy.
“He transferred from the post of NATO general secretary to a similar post in the EU at a moment when relations with the U.S. were rapidly deteriorating,” Sysoev recounted. “In Europe, the tendency toward Eurocentrism was gathering force, and the idea of setting up a United States of Europe was gaining in popularity. Therefore a lot depended on the person who would play the role of foreign minister of the EU. The choice of Javier Solana was not random. He was one of the few European leaders who suited the U.S. Solana's assistants in Brussels whom I was able to contact did not hide the fact that the U.S. was giving Solana's candidacy broad support. And Solana did not betray their hope. He prevented the U.S. and Europe from going their separate ways for good. The negative attitude toward the U.S. went away while he was in office.”
The Clinton administration called Solana Kissinger's dream fulfilled. He wanted one telephone number in Europe he could call to solve any problem.
Solana calls himself a European and an Atlantist and considers the interests of a “strong Europe” identical in many way with those of the U.S. He has turned all of his diplomatic talents to serving those interests. He presses for a larger role for Europe in the world and for that, in his opinion, the passage of a single European constitution is necessary to help guarantee the security of all the members of the EU.
When NATO Gen. Wesley Clark asked Solana what the secret of his diplomatic success was, Solana thought for a moment, then answered, “First, never make enemies. Second, never ask questions that you don't know the answer to or that you know you won't like the answer to.”
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Thus Spake Javier Solana
About Russia: “Russia means a lot for me. From the point of view of feelings, culture and friendship. I know Moscow not badly and really feel good there. I have many friends there and many good memories that I keep in my heart. I like St. Petersburg very much too. I would like to go farther east.”
About Russian President Vladimir Putin: “In his second term, Putin has become more open and possible for decisive. He is more concerned with problems concerning neighboring countries. Countries like Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia now are a source of more concern than they were a few years ago.”
About First President of Russia Boris Yeltsin: “It cannot be said that Yeltsin is in sound mind and firm memory. We saw it on TB and no one can deny it.”
About the post-Soviet countries: “Both sides [Russia and the EU] are interested in stable development in this region. Both the EU and Russia plays a role here and their actions influence development. Both the EU and Russia should act responsibly… The age of the sphere of influence' is over, the era of cooperation has arrived in which acknowledges the sovereign states as our mutual neighbors.”
About political differences with the U.S.: “We Europeans are for moderate politics. That is not because we are nice, but naïve people, but because our own experience has convinced us of the effectiveness of moderate politics. The Americans are used to thinking that the strong are always right and take that as a sign of weakness.”
About the 1999 NATO campaign in Yugoslavia: “I think we need to look at what would have happened if the actions we took in the Balkans had not been taken. It is easy to criticize what has happened, but the situation is without doubt better today.”
Thus They Spake about Javier Solana
Borislav Milosevic, bother of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic: “That person has no right to sat anything about the present situation [the death of Slobodan Milosevic]. The bears responsibility for the atrocities committed in Yugoslavia, for the destruction of my country. Solana was one of the fundamental aggressors against Yugoslavia.”
Chairman of the parliamentary faction of the conservative Polish Civic Platform Party Jan Rokita: “Javier Solana played an important role in settling the Ukrainian crisis. His mission was a landmark. It showed that the EU acts concertedly.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni: “I would like to thank Mr. Solana for his efforts to establish stability in the Middle East. Javier Solana acts not only as an international leader but also as a person would is concerned and understands the complexity of the problems the region is facing.”
Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah: “When Solana arrived [in Lebanon], e simply stated the demands of Israel. He appeared in Lebanon and told the government, You have to returned the kidnapped soldiers and fulfil the conditions of Resolution 1559.' Those conditions were tougher than those Israel is advancing now.”
Former president of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk: “In my view, the significance of the Russian factor in the election campaign [in Ukraine] was greatly exaggerated… In the final count, the roles of [Polish President Aleksander] Kwasniewski, [Lithuanian President Valdas] Adamkus and Solana were incomparably greater. It could be considered direct intervention in the Ukrainian electoral process.”
Nargiz Asadova
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 30, 2006
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