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NATO and Russia resume military ties
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 28 - 06 - 2009

NATO and Russia have agreed to resume military ties in their first high-level meeting since
Russia's war with Georgia disrupted their relations 10
months ago, The Associated Press reported.
NATO's outgoing Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer
announced Saturday that the so-called NATO-Russia Council,
a panel set up in 2002 to improve ties between the former
Cold War rivals, was operational again.
«It was my ambition to leave to my successor an NRC that
is up and running,» said de Hoop Scheffer, whose term as
secretary-general ends Aug. 1.
«After the meeting which just ended, I have achieved that
aim. Because there was clearly a sense in that meeting that
the NRC, which had been in neutral ... is now back in
gear,» he said. «We also agreed to restart the military
to military contacts.»
The resumption of talks means NATO and Russia can
cooperate on range of security issues, including
Afghanistan and efforts to fight piracy, terrorism and the
spread of nuclear weapons.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met his
counterparts from NATO's 28 member nations on the western
Greek island of Corfu ahead of a broader informal meeting
of ministers from the 56-nation Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe.
De Hoop Scheffer described the talks as «open and
constructive, which means we did not try to paper over our
differences on Georgia, for example. But we agreed not to
allow those agreements to bring the NRC to a halt.»
He said the renewed military contacts would involve
meetings of the chiefs of staff of Russia and NATO
countries.
The meeting in Corfu, which came as President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev prepare to hold a summit next week, reflected the trend toward improved
relations with Russia.
De Hoop Scheffer said Lavrov and the other ministers
raised the issue of Georgia extensively, and he said there
continued to be «fundamental differences on the
territorial integrity of Georgia
«But despite the fact I do not expect the twain to meet,
there are a lot of things in NRC we can discuss and we can
agree upon,» De Hoop Scheffer said.
Lavrov said that «overall I view this meeting as very
useful.»
«We had a very frank discussion, at the center stage of
which was the need on how to work together in the future,»
Lavrov said.
«We spoke extensively on confidence building measures,
but it is important to put those words into practice.»
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and Greek counterpart
Costas Karamanlis were the only heads of government to
attend the conference.
«We want to forget (the past) and resume total
cooperation on all the issues on which we have decided to
collaborate,» Berlusconi told journalists on his arrival
at the meeting.


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