Bucharest - Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leaders
of NATO began discussing possible avenues of cooperation at a meeting
in Bucharest on Friday which was seen as giving the two sides the
chance to bury the hatchet.
The NATO-Russia Council (NRC) was established in 2002 as a means
of fostering mutual understanding.
But relations between NATO and Russia have progressively
deteriorated since, reaching one of their lowest post-Cold War points
over the past year.
Disagreements cover a variety of issues, including Kosovo, a
planned US missile defence shield in Central Europe and NATO's
willingness to extend its reach eastwards.
But Moscow was mollified on the eve of the NRC by NATO's decision
not to give membership plans to Georgia and Ukraine for the time
being.
And the Russian media on Friday were busy emphasising the
positives of NATO-Russia joint action rather than the negatives of
West-East acrimony.
One place where cooperation is particularly cherished by the
alliance is in Afghanistan.
Under a deal that is expected to be formalised at the NRC, the
Kremlin is to agree to allow NATO to use Russian territory to deliver
non-lethal goods to its military bases in Afghanistan.
The two sides are already helping each other out in Afghanistan in
the fight against illegal drugs, with Russian counter-narcotics
experts training local personnel.
'Whatever we say, the role of NATO as a stability-securing
organization objectively exists,' Russian news agency Itar-Tass
quoted a high-ranking Kremlin official as saying Friday.
'We proceed from the fact that more close, open and equal
cooperation with NATO answers Russia's interests,' the official
added.
Thursday's NRC was the first to be attended by Putin and the last
by his US counterpart, George W Bush.
The two were due meet again in the Black Sea resort of Sochi over
the weekend.
Friday's meeting was taking place in Bucharest's Palace of the
Parliament, a monstrous 330,000-square-metre mansion built during the
regime of former communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
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