Russia 091204 Basic Political Developments

RFERL: Russia, NATO Holding First Formal Ministerial Meeting Since Georgia War

BRUSSELS -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to hold talks with his counterparts from NATO at a session of the NATO-Russia Council at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

The session will mark the first formal ministerial meeting between Russia and NATO since NATO froze formal relations with Moscow after Russia sent troops into Georgia in August, 2008, and subsequently recognized the independence of two Georgian separatist regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Diplomats are quoted as saying NATO and Russia are expected to sign three documents at today's session -- a joint review of threats and security issues in the 21st century, a NATO-Russia cooperation plan for 2010, and one addressing future goals of the Russia-NATO Council.

(compiled from agency reports)

Reuters: NATO, Russia resolve dispute, will hold talks

* Way cleared for signing of cooperation agreements

* Medvedev says Russia willing to help in Afghanistan

By David Brunnstrom

BRUSSELS, Dec 3 (Reuters) - NATO and Russia have resolved a dispute which Moscow's envoy to the military alliance had said could affect prospects for increased cooperation on Afghanistan, Russian and NATO diplomats said on Thursday.

They said the breakthrough would allow three documents on NATO-Russia cooperation to be signed on Friday at the first formal ministerial meeting between the two sides since ties were frozen after Russia's brief war with Georgia last year.

Russia's NATO envoy, Dmitry Rogozin, voiced frustration on Tuesday that the alliance would not discuss Moscow's proposals for a new Euro-Atlantic security treaty in the joint NATO-Russia Council (NRC), a forum for mutual cooperation. [ID:nGEE5B01PD]

He said Russia could link any increase in cooperation over Afghanistan to the dispute being resolved.

But a Russian diplomat said: "After two rounds of talks between Rogozin and the NATO secretary-general, the problems were solved."

A NATO diplomat also said a compromise had been reached.

The three documents to be signed by NATO and Russia during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers cover a joint assessment of threats and security issues, a cooperation plan for 2010 and the future of the NRC.

Russia's security proposal, published on Nov. 29, would restrict its ability to use military force unilaterally if the United States and its European allies agreed to do the same.

President Dmitry Medvedev has said the European Security Treaty is needed to replace Cold War-era institutions ill-suited to defusing tensions in a multi-polar world. [ID:nGEE5AS06N]

NATO states have said they are willing to discuss the Russian proposal, but that the correct forum for doing so is the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Medvedev said in Rome on Thursday Russia was willing to do its part to help the United States and Europe achieve peace in Afghanistan and to help Kabul in its efforts to transform its economy, its military and its police forces. [nGEE5B21XH]

NATO-Russia ties have warmed since a freeze after Moscow's war with Georgia in August 2008, and Russia has agreed to allow transit of NATO supplies to Afghanistan.

It has held out the prospect of training Afghan forces and refurbishing helicopters that could be deployed to Afghanistan.

(Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)

((For more on Afghanistan, double-click on [ID:nAFPAK] )) ((david.brunnstrom@reuters.com ; +32 2 287 6839; Reuters Messaging: david.brunnstrom.reuters.com@reuters.net ))

Russia Today: Moscow and NATO in reset mode

04 December, 2009, 09:31

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is in Brussels for the first formal Russia-NATO Council meeting since the war in South Ossetia in August last year.

The meeting carries hopes for a “reset” of relations between Russia and the alliance, relations which have been frozen for more than a year and a half.

Three documents will be the focus of the discussion: a road map for the development of relations between Russia and NATO, an instruction to ambassadors to carry out the first joint analysis of security threats, and a plan for upgrading the efficiency of the Council.

“All three documents have been agreed upon and are awaiting approval by the ministers. The Russian approaches were taken into account,” Russia's Ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said on Thursday.

Moscow is insisting on the reformation of the Russia-NATO Council. As Rogozin noted, the aim is “to reject political bureaucracy in favor of practical work – in particular, by creating separate dialogue formats at the level of experts for each cooperation vector, first and foremost, in Afghanistan.”

Preparations for the first visit to Russia by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on December 15-17 will also be highlighted at the meeting.

Dec 4, 2009, 7:40 GMT

Monster and Critics: Russian security pact cannot sideline NATO, Frattini says

Brussels - Russia's proposal for a new security pact from Vancouver to Vladivostok cannot be used to sideline NATO, Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said at the alliance's headquarters on Friday.

Italy is seen as one of NATO's more pro-Russian members, making its reservations on the security issue especially significant.

'In itself it's a good proposal ... but of course the first precondition to address the issue is that this cannot be seen as an alternative to NATO, which remains the pillar for international and Euro-Atlantic security,' Frattini said ahead of talks with his NATO and Russian counterparts.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev first called for a legally-binding security pact across the Northern Hemisphere in Berlin in June 2008. He published the details of his proposal in November this year.

The proposals received a lukewarm response in the West, where states sceptical of Russia's intentions saw them as an attempt to give the country a veto over NATO's security plans.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) began discussing the concept at a meeting on Corfu in June.

Foreign ministers from NATO and Russia were expected to touch on the subject at their meeting on Friday, but to stress that the OSCE is the appropriate forum for in-depth talks.

MOSCOW, December 4 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian and Italian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Franco Frattini discussed issues of European security and readiness for a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council due to open in Brussels on Friday. Their meeting was held in Rome on Thursday within the framework of extended Russian-Italian interstate summit consultations, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.

“Both sides pointed to the dynamic and onward development of partnership relations between Russia and Italy,” a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said. The sides “confirmed mutual striving to deepen the political dialogue and expand Russian-Italian cooperation in the trade, economic, scientific, cultural and humanitarian fields.”

The ministers paid special attention to “problems of forming a new architecture of European security in the light of the Russian president’s initiative on concluding a European security treaty, prospects for development of Russia-EU relations, issues of preparations for a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council at the ministerial level due to be held in Brussels and the results of the meeting of the OSCE Council of Foreign Ministers held in Athens on December 2.

Besides, the sides “considered a number of practical aspects of the current situation in Afghanistan and the Middle East, as well as problems of the Iranian nuclear program,” the ministry’s spokesman said.