The Contemporary Irish Russian Relationship
I would like to thank the Rector of the Russian State University of the Humanities, Rector, Prof. Yefim Iosifovich PIVOVARfor inviting me to address you here today. I would also like to thank my old friend Dr. Vladimir Pryakhin for helping to arrange this speech.
Ireland: An old nation and a young country.
It is an honour for me to have the opportunity to address you here today. Despite its comparatively young age, RSUH has come to be one of the best among the most respected universities of the country, having emerged as of the leading educational and research centres in Russia.
Ireland too is a young country, only achieving independence in 1922. However, it is the home of an ancient culture.
The theme of my address gives me a wide scope. Contemporary can of course refer to any person who is still living today. I have a ninety eight year old aunt who was born in 1916 and is still driving her car. In the case or Ireland, of course, it is impossible to understand the contemporary scene without understanding the deeper history.
And Ireland’s history is a rich and textured one. It has seen the best and the worst of times. Between the fifth and ninth centuries, Ireland, a pastoral and pagan society on the edge of Europe, inhabited by warring Celtic tribes, suddenly became a centre of Christian faith and scholarship, an Island of Saints and Scholars. One book describes this era as “How the Irish saved Civilisation”.
In the interim, of course, Ireland has experienced Viking, Norman and English invasions. It has also experienced religious divisions and economic hardship. The Great Famine in the 1840s marked the nadir of Ireland’s economic fortunes. Following that cataclysm, Ireland experienced over a century of emigration, the evidence of which can be found in the thriving Irish communities in America, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Australia. Even earlier, the Wild Geese spread their wings and spread across the length and breadth of Europe. De Lacy’s fought for the Russian Tsar. And of course the great John Field played a pivotal role in the development of world and Russian music.
Since the famine, Ireland has seen a national revival. In the year my aunt was born, on Easter Monday, 1916, a small group of republicans launched a rebellion against British rule, which proved a failure in the short term, but in the medium term, transformed the nature of Irish politics. By 1923, the southern part of Ireland had achieved independence following a guerrilla war with Britain and a civil war prompted by the terms of the Anglo Irish Treaty of 1921. The Relationship with Britain however continued to dominate Irish political life and we have seen three decades of conflict in Northern Ireland which began in 1968. Thankfully this conflict has now ended. The new structures put in place on foot of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 are transforming Northern Ireland.
This textured history has led to Irish culture and society being multi layered and complex. The world has benefited from this complexity in the form of the rich literary, musical and cultural heritage that Ireland has shared with it. Swift, Wilde, Yeats, Joyce, Synge, Shaw, Flann O Brien, Kavanagh and Heaney to name but a few, are writers of whom we are justly proud. More recently Irish musicians have built a worldwide reputation.
Of course, modern Ireland is very different to the images many have of Ireland. The days of the primarily rural economy and society are behind us. The ass and cart and the country boreen have been replace by the SUV and the motorway. Modern Ireland is urban and economically developed. Since opening up to the world in the 1950s, Ireland has seen impressive economic development. It is now a member state of the European Union. It is also the base for modern industries in the IT, Pharmaceutical and other sectors.
For the first time since the seventeenth century, Ireland is a country of immigration. And unlike some of our earlier immigrants, these new immigrants are welcome and have played an important part in building our society. Two years ago, 16% of all births in Ireland were to mothers who were citizens of the “new ten” European Union member states. You will now hear Polish, Czech, Russian, Lithuanian, Latvian and many other languages frequently spoken on the streets of Ireland.
Between the late 1980s and 2008, Ireland was one of the fastest growing economies in the world. In that period the workforce almost doubled. However, Ireland hit a perfect storm in 2008 when it faced a financial, employment and government expenditure crisis. Thankfully, we have weathered that storm and Ireland is well on its way to economic recovery. While we know there’s a long way to go still, it’s clear we’re firmly on the right path. 2014 will be our fourth consecutive year of economic growth. Export levels are higher than before the crisis, jobs are being created and unemployment is falling. At the end of 2013, we became the first Eurozone country to exit an EU/IMF programme of assistance. We have made a full return to normal financial market funding, and our bond yields have reached historic lows. Businesses, investors and global markets have renewed confidence in our economic future.
Exports have been the primary driver of our economic recovery. Export levels are now significantly higher than the pre-crisis peak in 2007. Net job creation both from inward investment, and by our small and medium sized exporting companies, was higher in 2013 than it has been for ten years.
Why? We have one of the most open and progressive economies in the world. Forbes magazine ranks us as the best country in the world for doing business. Ireland’s competitiveness has significantly improved as labour costs, commercial property prices and other business costs have come down.
Other independent studies rank Ireland first in the world for inward investment by quality and value, and as the best country in Western Europe in which to invest. We rank first in the world for the flexibility and adaptability of our workforce, and third in the world for the availability of skilled labour. We have a young, highly-educated workforce in the only English-speaking country within the Eurozone, with barrier-free access to 500 million consumers. Dublin is ranked as the best city in the world for human capital.
Our agri-food sector is performing particularly strongly, increasing exports by 40% since 2009 to reach a value of almost €10 billion in 2013. Through the Origin Green initiative, Ireland is well on its way to becoming known as one of the most sustainable places in the world to produce food and drink.
Over 1000 overseas companies have chosen Ireland as their strategic base in Europe. 8 of the top 10 global ICT firms, 9 of the world’s top 10 pharmaceutical firms, and all 10 of the largest online companies in the world operate from Ireland. During 2013, major investments in Ireland were announced by Deutsche Bank, Twitter, EMC, eBay, Salesforce, Novartis, Vistakon, Facebook, Zurich, Symantec, De Puy, Yahoo, Sanofi and Indeed.com.
The same factors which draw overseas firms to Ireland make our indigenous enterprises and start-ups among the most dynamic and innovative in the world. Employment in Irish exporting companies grew strongly in 2013, and Irish innovation in sectors such as information technology, medical devices and engineering is changing and enhancing people’s lives around the world, every day.
In recent years Ireland has been building a reputation for excellent research and supporting significant academic-industrial collaborations, including with Russia. Ireland is now in the top 20 countries in global rankings for the quality of its scientific research, up from 36th in 2003.
To summarise, Ireland is bouncing back from its recent difficulties.
Irish Foreign Policy
I would like to say some words about Irish Foreign Policy. Ireland has, from the very beginning of its independence, championed the principles of international law. Ireland is one of the few countries that achieved independence after the First World War which has maintained democratic governance ever since. It was an enthusiastic member of the League of Nations and has developed a strong role in the United Nations. We have been major contributors to United Nations Peace Keeping missions over the years with major contingents serving in the Congo, Lebanon, Cyprus, Liberia and Kosovo and Irish troops and policemen serving in UN mandated missions in many more countries over the years. Ireland currently participates in seven UN peacekeeping missions, including each of the three missions in the Middle East.
From an early stage, Ireland also made its mark on the policy of the United Nations, playing a pivotal role in pushing forward policies for Nuclear non Proliferation. Ireland has indeed had a long-standing commitment to the elimination of nuclear weapons and the prevention of further proliferation of nuclear weapons capability and we were centrally involved in the negotiations leading to the signing of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968. Indeed, in recognition of this, our then Foreign Minister, Frank Aiken, was invited to Moscow to sign the Treaty and make the closing speech of the ceremony. Ireland continues to work for arms control. In May 2008, the final conference which agreed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, was held in Dublin.
Our foreign policy is shaped by our position as an open, export-oriented democracy. Our membership of, and active participation in, organisations such as the United Nations, the European Union, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Council of Europe has allowed us to pursue our interests on the world stage, taking our responsibilities to international peace very seriously and yet not compromising our country's military neutrality.
For us, membership of the European Union has become a central framework for pursuing our foreign policy objectives. It helps us shape the policy of 28 member states, including two of the Permanent Member of the United Nations Security Council.
The global financial crisis demonstrates the interconnected nature of the global economy.
It is clear that the challenges of the 21st century are truly global in nature and can only be overcome if the international community is willing to work together. Greater globalisation and interdependency demands a greater commitment to multilateralism, and to its institutions. This belief in effective multilateralism is the corner stone of Irish Foreign Policy.
Multilateralism offers the right mechanism to help build stability and ensure a fair, credible and consistent system of global governance. This commitment to multilateralism is reflected in our actions. Even at the height of the recent economic crisis, Ireland agreed to take on the Chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, in 2012. In 2012, as Ireland’s Ambassador to the OSCE, I chaired the Permanent Council of the OSCE in Vienna. The OSCE has pioneered the concept of comprehensive security. This is a multifaceted concept which includes the three essential dimensions of security: political and military issues; the human dimension; and economic and environmental security. Ireland has always attached a particular importance to the human dimension and during our Chair we sought to advance the human rights agenda within the OSCE area. While unfortunately, we were unable to achieve consensus on human Rights decisions at the Dublin OSCE Ministerial Council in December 2012, we did achieve consensus on a very good decision on Governance and progressed the issue of internet freedom considerably during our Chair.
The potential of the OSCE in the field of conflict resolution and prevention has not yet been fully realised and Ireland launched the Helsinki + 40 process to enable the Organisation to reflect on how it can better contribute to creating a stable, peaceful and democratic space stretching from Vancouver to Vladivostok. Recent developments have brought the challenges facing the OSCE into sharp focus. Ireland believes that any lasting stability must see a strengthening of the OSCE's capacities and the full implementation of existing OSCE commitments. The recent decision to deploy a monitoring mission in Ukraine is a clear indicator that the OSCE can play a pivotal role, as it did in facilitating elections in Kosovo during the Irish Chair.
Ireland and Russia Forty Years of Relations
In September 1973, Ireland finally established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. In the years since then, we have seen a steady deepening in our relationship with a significant increase in economic, political, educational and cultural exchanges between our two countries and our two peoples.
Russia is the closest of the BRICS economies to Ireland both in terms of distance and GDP per capita, and is possibly the most familiar to us, culturally and socially. Many Irish people with experience of working with Russia and Russians point out how similar we are once the initial ice is broken, and the language barrier overcome. This is surely supported by the very impressive trade figures for exports to Russia which have doubled over the recent past.
The Irish Government has taken determined efforts to facilitate and encourage this trade, including through a very efficient visa system, a visa waiver programme, active business support through the Embassy and Enterprise Ireland and sustained government to government economic and political consultations. We are conscious that continued improvements to our systems and regulations are required to ensure that Ireland remains a very competitive, efficient and important trading partner for Russia.
The engagement with Russia continues. Over the last two days, the Russia Ireland Joint Economic Commission met in Dublin. The formal session was co chaired by Deputy Minister Travnikov and Minister of State Costello.
Finally, I would invite all of you to visit Ireland. Last year we had 8 million visitors. I am sure you would enjoy our beautiful island.
Thank You.
Eoin O’Leary