This was the first meeting held as part of the Club of Three’s AMEURUS programme focusing on the trilateral cooperation between America, Europe and Russia. A declaration drafted by representatives of these three regions called on them to “come together on a common strategy for achieving a more secure, more prosperous, and more socially cohesive world.”
The meeting, which took place weeks ahead of the US invasion of Iraq, explored three main themes: security and defence in the 21st century, and terrorism. Although the UN Security Council was still debating a new Resolution on Iraq at the time, it was already widely assumed that war was imminent. The discussion on Iraq and the Middle East therefore focused on the challenges that would emerge in the aftermath of Saddam Hussein’s regime, extending far beyond the problems of establishing a viable democracy in the country.
The meeting was attended by senior figures from the US, France, Germany, the UK and Russia. Participants included Richard Haass (Director of Policy Planning, US Department of State); Joseph Nye (Dean, JFK School of Government, Harvard University); Senator John Warner (United States Senate); Jean-Louis Gergorin (Executive Vice-President, Strategic Co-ordination, EADS); Alexei Arbatov (Deputy Chairman, Defense Committee, Russian State Duma); John E Tedstrom (Vice-President for Policy Studies, EastWest Institute); Ambassador Gebhardt Von Moltke (German Ambassador to NATO); Dmitri Trenin (Carnegie Endowment, Moscow Centre); Paula Dobriansky (US Under-secretary of State for Global Affairs); Mikhail Margelov (Chair, Foreign Affairs Committee, Russian Federal Assembly); Sir Jeremy Greenstock (British Ambassador to the United Nations); Andrei Fedorov (Council on External & Defense Policy, Moscow).