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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, November 24, 2001

Putin Calls for Improving Russia-NATO Relations

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday called for improving relationship between Russia and NATO, but ruled out the possibility of Russia's joining in NATO.


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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday called for improving relationship between Russia and NATO, but ruled out the possibility of Russia's joining in NATO.

The dialogue between Russia and NATO are developing intensively, and the contacts between Russian and NATO officials have seen a noticeable increase since his previous meeting with Robertson in Brussels on October 3, Putin said at a meeting with Robertson in the Kremlin.

Russia maintains contacts with NATO at the level of heads of state and government, as well as at the level of the NATO headquarters staff, Putin said, expressing his hope that Robertson 's visit to Russia would help foster security in Europe and worldwide.

Ruling out the possibility of Russia's membership in NATO, he said Russia is prepared to develop relations with the alliance to an extent for which NATO is ready.

Robertson, who arrived in Russia on Wednesday for a three-day visit, said that new ideas to expand NATO-Russian cooperation must be worked out boldly and a solid alliance should be built against the common enemy -- international terrorism.

Robertson stressed that it is more important to maintain the established relations between Russia and NATO than to set up a new body or to change the "19 plus 1" format of Russia-NATO cooperation into "twenty."

Robertson said that the format of future cooperation between Russia and NATO is not clear and it is premature to discuss the mechanism of future NATO-Russian cooperation. The 1997 Founding Act is still the cornerstone document for NATO's relations with Russia.

Robertson confirmed to reporters that Putin also ruled out the possibility of Russia's entering NATO.

Following the Putin-Robertson meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told reporters that the two leaders discussed the issue of enhancing the quality of Russia-NATO partnership rather than Russia's entry into NATO.

The minister said the two sides also discussed questions of the further deepening of Russia-NATO cooperation in the military area, jointly fighting international terrorism, the anti-ballistic missile (ABM) problems and the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Putin and Robertson also talked over the situation in the Balkans and in the Caucasus. After the September 11 terror attacks in the U.S., NATO has had better understanding of Russia's anti- terror policy in Chechnya, said Robertson.

On Thursday and Friday, Robertson also met with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Security Council Secretary Vladimir Rushailo.

Ending his second visit to Russia in this year, the NATO chief left Moscow on Friday evening.




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