Russia Establishes Antiterror Team to Cooperate with NATO

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, March 29, 2002

Russia Establishes Antiterror Team to Cooperate with NATO

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The Russian government has set up an inter-departmental working team to cooperate with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in fighting international terrorism, local media cited Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Anatoly Safonov as saying Thursday.

Safonov made the announcement while addressing a roundtable meeting, which was entitled "Russia-NATO: Common Interests in the Fight Against International Terrorism" and held in Russia's secondbiggest city of St. Petersburg within the framework of the ongoinginternational parliamentary forum on the fight against terrorism.

The team was formed last week on the initiative of the Russian President Vladimir Putin and would "coordinate the efforts of manyagencies," he said.

The working group would coordinate the cooperative efforts of many federal departments in Russia, he said.

In Safonov's opinion, positive changes have occurred in the domain of Russia-NATO relations after the September 11 terror events. Meanwhile, the past several months also revealed a range of problems that prompt the two sides to give maximum attention tocoordinating the anti-terrorism campaign.

In promoting the anti-terrorism partnership between Russia and NATO, the two sides should act likewise -- at first, consolidate everything that they had previously achieved and move on only after that, he stressed.

U.S. officials who attended the conference stated that the importance of Russian Armed Forces' cooperation with NATO was hardto overestimate.

Sergio Vallazio, former NATO deputy secretary-general, said thesuccessful operation against the Taliban had displayed efficacy ofclose cooperative ties between Russia, Central-Asian countries andNATO.

Such a relationship is always essential, he said, and the countries that decided to pool their efforts against terrorism must have common strategy.

Vallazio also stressed the importance of regular exchange of information on a possible use of mass destruction arms by terrorist organizations.

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