http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-01-17/nato-to-rebuff-russian-bid-for-separate-treaty-officials-say.html
Bloomberg News January 18, 2010 NATO to Rebuff Russian Bid for Separate Treaty, Officials Say By James G. Neuger -Western governments have been cool to the Medvedev initiative, a product of the Kremlin’s desire to overhaul European security arrangements after NATO’s eastward enlargement put western troops on Russia’s borders. “There can be no doubt whatsoever that NATO will remain our framework for Euro-Atlantic security,” Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said last month. NATO is likely to rebuff a Russian proposal for a bilateral security treaty, seeing it as a ploy to regain lost influence over eastern Europe [sic], four allied officials said. The initiative marks a Russian bid to...halt the Brussels-based North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s expansion. The proposal, made last month, would have effectively given Russia a veto over allied military planning, especially in eastern Europe, said the officials, who declined to be named because the alliance hasn’t issued a formal response. “It’s a way of trying to put into treaty an acceptance of a Russian sphere of influence,” said Kurt Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO who is now managing director of Johns Hopkins University’s trans-Atlantic relations center in Washington. “It essentially gives Russia a veto over countries that are not yet members of NATO.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov handed the proposed “Agreement on Basic Principles Governing Relations Among NATO- Russia Council Member States in Security Sphere” in Russian and English versions to allied officials without publicity at a NATO-Russia meeting in Brussels Dec. 4 NATO-Russia Cooperation While NATO aims to boost cooperation with Russia on the war in Afghanistan, fighting piracy and stemming nuclear proliferation, there is little appetite for a new treaty, said the four NATO officials. ,,,, Asked if NATO-Russia ties need a new legal basis, the alliance’s supreme military commander, U.S. Admiral James Stavridis, said his focus is on practical steps such as expanding the supply lines through Russia for the 100,000-plus western troops in Afghanistan. .... Obama ‘Reset’ The Lavrov paper, coming as President Barack Obama seeks to “reset” relations with the Kremlin, is distinct from a wider East-West security treaty also floated last year by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Western governments have been cool to the Medvedev initiative, a product of the Kremlin’s desire to overhaul European security arrangements after NATO’s eastward enlargement put western troops on Russia’s borders. “There can be no doubt whatsoever that NATO will remain our framework for Euro-Atlantic security,” Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said last month. NATO absorbed former Soviet allies starting in 1999, when a Russia shorn of its Cold War satellites was struggling to regain its economic footing after defaulting on $40 billion of debt. .... Russia pushed back against further NATO enlargement by ***invading western-leaning Georgia in August 2008 and trying to reassert control over Ukraine***, which held the first round of presidential elections yesterday. No Choice .... Putin has accused NATO of violating a 1998 pledge not to permanently station “substantial combat forces” on former Warsaw Pact territory. The new treaty would potentially allow Russia to weigh in on NATO defense policies such as the air policing mission over the three Baltic republics, once part of the Soviet Union. NATO has pointed to the 56-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, an East-West forum created in 1975, as the best arena for discussing Russia’s security concerns. --Editors: James Hertling, Steve Rhinds =========================== Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato Blog site: http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/ To subscribe, send an e-mail to: rwroz...@yahoo.com or stopnato-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Daily digest option available. ==============================
