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NATO chief hopes for new era in relations with Russia
Brussels (AFP) Jan 26, 2009 NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer expressed hope Monday for a new era in the alliance's relations with Russia, ahead of talks next month with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov. "Next month, I'll meet with the head of the Russian delegation at the security conference in Munich, to re-engage at the political level," Scheffer said. "I hope it will be the first step in a fresh approach to NATO-Russia relations," he told defence and security experts at a meeting in Brussels. Earlier Monday, a Russian diplomat said the two would meet on February 6, as NATO and Moscow seek to end the freeze in ties sparked by Russia's short war with Georgia in August. The meeting, on the sidelines of the international security conference in the southern German city, "will in any case be an occasion to renew political dialogue," the diplomat said. His comments came after informal talks between NATO and Russian ambassadors in Brussels, the first meeting of its kind in more than six months. "I have to say that the meeting was positive," Scheffer said. The conflict in Georgia in August brought tense NATO-Russia ties to a head, particularly after Moscow's decision to recognise the independence of the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russia has been angered by NATO's open-door policy in regard to former Soviet states Georgia and Ukraine, which alliance leaders have said will join the alliance one day, although a fast-track approach has been ruled out for now. Moscow is also vehemently opposed to independence for Kosovo, which broke away from Serbia almost a year ago and where NATO leads a peacekeeping force, and has threatened to counter the extension into Europe of a US missile shield. NATO allies, for their part, have expressed concern about Moscow's decision to freeze a major Cold War arms treaty. NATO spokesman James Appathurai said that Monday's talks between the ambassadors, which lasted more than two hours, "were very positive. There were no recriminations from either side." "Georgia was not the subject of any heated discussion, and no one called into question NATO-Russia relations," he said. He said the ambassadors "did not examine the past but turned more toward the future," in particular their cooperation on Afghanistan, where NATO-led troops are struggling to deal with a Taliban-led insurgency. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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China's Wen set for tie-mending EU trip as economic woes deepen
Beijing (AFP) Jan 26, 2009Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao departs on a high-profile trip to Europe Tuesday to mend ties with Brussels after a row over Tibet last year and focus on efforts to tackle the global economic crisis. |
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