Africa | America | Asia | Australasia | Europe | India | Middle East | UK | US

NATO meets with Russia to re-build post-Georgian ties - 2nd Update

Posted : Sat, 27 Jun 2009 15:29:41 GMT
By : DPA
Category : Europe (World)
News Alerts by Email ( click here )
Europe World News | Home
Corfu, Greece - NATO foreign ministers began talks with their Russian counterpart on Saturday, the first high-level meeting since the Georgia war last year, in an effort to rebuild a new era of cooperation in areas such as counterterrorism and Afghanistan. At the start of the NATO-Russia Council meeting, Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said attendees share common security interests, such as the stabilization of Afghanistan, arms control, counterterrorism, and efforts to control the spread of narcotics and piracy.

"NATO-Russian contacts have been frozen at the political level since last August. Now they will be unfrozen and we will be back on track politically and I hope militarily as well," said NATO spokesperson James Appathurai.

A US official said NATO also hoped for cooperation with Russia in counter-piracy operations off Somalia and to extend, to a NATO level, bilateral talks on transit of military supplies to Afghanistan through Russian territory."

Relations between the alliance and Russia were suspended after Russian forces invaded Georgia after that country's troops attacked its breakaway province of South Ossetia.

Saturday's meeting is expected to launch a new programme of cooperation after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov refused to attend a NATO-Russia Council meeting planned in mid-May following a row over NATO-led military exercises in Georgia and mutual accusations of spying.

"I think it means that we will be back to business both politically and militarily," said Appathurai, adding that "while Georgia is a big issue "it cannot hang like a cloud on each and every argument of NATO-Russia relations in the Council."

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said that "Russia and Europe have not forgotten what happened. We have to try to overcome it ... I never believed that it is right to isolate Russia."

He said that it was important to understand that there are new security threats such as nuclear proliferation and terrorism that both Europea and Russia must face together, not separately.

The US official, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the lack of trust was one of the fundamental stumbling blocks and that US President Barack Obama was willing to re-engage Russia on every level.

The meetings come a week before both a summit between Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow and a summit of G8 powers in Rome.

Lavrov is meeting with the 28 foreign ministers of the NATO countries on the sidelines of the two-day OSCE meeting, set to begin late Saturday.

Gathering on the island of Corfu, many ministers will stay through Sunday for an informal European Union review of ties with Iran over its post-election crackdown on opposition protesters.

The OSCE meeting will also tackle ways to overcome Russian-Western differences regarding Georgia and look at a new European security plan proposed by Medvedev.

Copyright DPA

Share/Save/Bookmark

Article : NATO meets with Russia to re-build post-Georgian ties - 2nd Update
Print this article
Email this article

Stay Updated
News gadget on your Google homepage
Subscribe to a news feed in Google Reader


Related News

Putin feels a certain nostalgia for former East Germany - Summary
Moscow - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was fond of his life in the former communist East Germany, where he was based as a KGB officer up until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, he said in an interview on Russia's NTW television Sunday. I ...

Berlin 'divided' again to mark the fall of Berlin Wall
Berlin - Thousands flocked to the centre of Berlin Sunday, ahead of celebrations to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall that divided Germany until 1989 - symbolized Sunday by a row of giant domino stones set up throughout the his...

Putin nostalgic for life in former East Germany
Moscow - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was fond of his life in the former communist East Germany, where he was based as a KGB officer up until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, he said in an interview on Russia's NTW television Sunday. I ...

Dresden synagogue daubed with swastikas
Dresden - The synagogue in the eastern German city of Dresden has been daubed with swastikas, ahead of the anniversary of Germany's 1938 pogrom night, police said on Sunday. Roughly six metres of the synagogue's outside wall had been covered in the N...

Angry Russian cop now fearful after online video complaint
Moscow - A Russian police officer who posted two video clips on the internet to air his grievances directly to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin about pay and overtime work conditions said Sunday he now feared for his life. The Interfax agency cited Majo...

Two women hikers freeze to death in northern Spain
Madrid - Two women hikers who got lost in the Pyrenees Mountains in northern Spain were found frozen to death by rescue teams, officials reported Sunday. Authorities in the north-eastern city Gerona said three others in the five-member group of hiker...

Lahm and Toni face sanctions at troubled Bayern Munich
Munich - Italy striker Luca Toni and Germany defender Philipp Lahm can expect to be disciplined by Bayern Munich amid media reports of a crisis at Germany's most successful Bundesliga club. A newspaper interview by Lahm highly critical of transfer ...

Have your Say
Name
Email
Subject
Your Comment

Enter Verification code
 
  

 

 

More Europe (World) News click here
Follow The Earth Times
Subscribe to RSS Follow Earth Times on TwitterNews by email
Share/Save/Bookmark

 
 



 
Subscribe to free Earthtimes
News Alerts by Email Click here
For RSS Feeds Click here
or Create your own RSS

Add to Google Toolbar
Breaking News
Press Releases

 


The Earth Times
News Category

© 2009 www.earthtimes.org, The Earth Times, All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy
Earth Times accept no responsibility or liability either directly or indirectly for views or opinions expressed in articles or comments.