Diction on a seesaw: a report on the RIAC conference on EU-Russia relations / Part 2
... but we need not imagine any plans to be drawn up at an event like this. The main advancement made here was mutually admitting the inevitability of Russia-EU partnership. Many agree that a common vision and mutual trust are preconditions for further cooperation. But care must be taken not to hijack the discourse by speaking in generalities and elaborating on run-of-the-mill ideas. Some European participants did exactly this, while others, including Mr Barroso, spoke of grandiose plans that seem little conceivable in the medium or even long term. At odds with this stood the unaffected pragmatism of Russian partakers. Speaking in simple terms about feasible steps to support and intensify mutually beneficial ...