Strategic Partner?
French-Russian Economic Relations
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is calling Russia one of France’s strategic partners. However, measured in terms of economic relations, this is wishful thinking. As the French travelling salesman in chief, Sarkozy may have engineered an arms deal, but as far as trade partners go, even Belgium is more important for France than Russia. In addition, France is running a steadily growing deficit in its trade with Russian, and, despite all of its efforts, French economic integration with Russia lags behind German-Russian integration.
(Osteuropa 9/2010, pp. 37–49)