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Russia Expects Renewal Ties with NATO
Russia is ready to achieve a new qualitative change in relations with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as an ultimate goal of its foreign policy, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday, December 12.
The new level with the Atlantic alliance implies a move from an exchange of information, opinions and assessments between the two sides to working out and adopting joint decisions on key military- political issues and European security, the ministry said in a statement.
The two sides will discuss the priority avenues of bilateral cooperation, especially the situation in the Balkans, at a session of the Russia-NATO Joint Permanent Council at the level of foreign ministers scheduled for Friday in Brussels, capital of Belgium, it said.
The ministry expressed the hope that the meeting will help to accelerate the recovery of the Russian-NATO cooperation, worsened by NATO's aggression against Yugoslav and its interference in the Chechen problem, an internal affair of Russia, last year.
A work plan for the council in 2001 and a document on search and rescue operations at sea are expected to be signed at the session, while other relevant documents are being worked on as well, the statement said.
It said the upcoming council session "could give an additional impulse to the thawing of Russia's relations with the North Atlantic alliance," which began after NATO Secretary-General George Robertson's visit to Russian in March but proceeds slowly due to Moscow's disagreement with the eastward enlargement and the European security concept of the alliance.
Meanwhile, the establishment of a NATO information bureau in Moscow remains up in the air because of the two sides' disputes over its future status and functions, the ministry said.
Russia confirms its "principled agreement" with NATO on setting up a representative office in Moscow, but regards as "overstated" NATO's proposals to turn this body into a kind of diplomatic mission authorized to hold negotiations, it said.
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