----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, February 19, 2001 11:00 PM Subject: Von Ribbentrop Gets Chilly Welcome In Moscow [STOPNATO.ORG.UK] STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Get low APR NextCard VISA, in 30 seconds! 1. Fill in the brief application 2. Receive approval decision in 30 seconds 3. Get rates as low as 2.99% Intro or 9.99% Ongoing APR and no annual fee! Apply NOW! http://on.linkexchange.com/?ATID=27&AID=2269 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [The comparison with Hitler's foreign minister seems unavoidable. The latter also came to Moscow promising peace - and within five years over twenty million Russians were killed....Note the timing of the Chinese miltary leader's arrival....Robertson has the gall to openly state that "NATO was not engaged n that particular activity" referring to the recent bombing of Baghdad, when the two mainstays of NATO - the U.S. and UK - were the perpetrators, and Robertson is a citizen and representative of the second of the two. Luckily, it appears that Russia, unlike sixty years ago, isn't being fooled.] Tuesday, February 20 5:40 AM SGT NATO chief's Moscow visit clouded by expansion, US missile defense MOSCOW, Feb 19 (AFP) - NATO chief George Robertson arrived in Moscow late Monday for a visit aimed at warming relations but expected to yield little progress in the dispute over enlargement and US plans for a missile shield. Billed as a further reconciliation between NATO and Russia following the 1999 war in Kosovo, the two-day visit will also bring talks on stepping up nuclear defense of both Russia and the NATO bloc. "We want to build a crisis-resistant relationship, in which we can talk about all our views, and I think we're well on the way of achieving that," Robertson said upon arrival. The NATO chief told reporters that he was bringing with him a package of proposals on measures of nuclear defense, and that he was looking forward to Russian reaction to those. Robertson also distanced the alliance from the recent US-British air strikes on Iraq, which had sparked Russian anger, saying that "NATO was not engaged in that particular activity, so it should not spoil" the relations between Moscow and NATO. Robertson's visit will provide President Vladimir Putin with the opportunity to state his case against membership for the Baltic states in the alliance. Robertson, who will be meeting with Putin, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev, served notice ahead of his arrival that the 19-member military bloc he represents will not be dissuaded from taking in new members from inside the old "Iron Curtain". "I know that Russia has reservations on what it sees as the eastern expansion of NATO. But I do not believe that any expansion or any enlargement of NATO threatens to upset the existing balance," he told ITAR-TASS. Moscow has been hostile to the idea of the three Baltic republics of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania -- which were part of the former Soviet Union -- joining the fold of NATO, which was established in April 1949 to defend the West against aggression from Moscow. Since welcoming Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic into the alliance in 1999, NATO has begun examining the membership applications of nine other central and eastern European countries, including the three Baltic states. Against the backdrop of difficult talks with his Russian hosts, Robertson will ceremoniously reopen a NATO information office that Moscow closed down in fury at the 11-week NATO bombing of Yugoslavia that began in March 1999. A military liaison office could also start to function again within a few months. But all the bonhomie in the world will not disguise the fact that Russia and NATO are at loggerheads over a range of issues, commented Viktor Kremenyuk, deputy director of the USA-Canada Institute. "It is good that this visit of Robertson is taking place but I do not believe it can yield any important results as Moscow's and NATO's aims are entirely opposed. "Moscow is against the enlargement of NATO and NATO just does not stop expanding. Russia will never join it because it is not being invited (to do so) and will never be," Kremenyuk added. Washington's determination under the new administration of President George W. Bush to press ahead with a national missile defence (NMD) system in violation of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty has also raised the temperature. Russia, which knows that the United States' European allies are much less enthusiastic about the US initiative, intends to use the talks with Robertson to repeat its rival proposal for the European Union and NATO to join forces with it and set up a joint anti-missile shield. Meanwhile, in a four-day visit that will coincide with Robertson's, General Zhang Wannian, deputy head of China's highest military body the Central Military Commission, was also to arrive in Moscow late Monday. Like Russia, China is strongly opposed to the NMD project, regarding it as a strategic threat despite Washington's assurances that it is intended to repel attacks by hostile states. Zhang on Sunday held talks in Beijing with German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping, and German diplomatic sources in Beijing said the NMD issue featured on the agenda. Berlin is also wary of the 'Son of Star Wars' project, and during a visit to Moscow last month Scharping lent support to Russia's affirmation that the shield would violate the ABM treaty. ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
