November 22, 2001	Thursday	Ramazan 6, 1422

MOSCOW, Nov 21: Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said on Wednesday that Moscow was seeking the “right to a voice” within the Atlantic alliance.

At the same time he expressed Russia’s desire to take a leading role in the creation of a new government in Afghanistan that “discriminated against the Taliban’s” participation in a new multi-ethnic coalition.

Ivanov’s tough demands on NATO and reassertion of Moscow’s distaste for even the “moderate” Taliban’s membership in a new Kabul regime came as Russia sought to cement its interests following the West’s warm reception of the Kremlin’s cooperation with the US-led anti-terror campaign.

The Russian defence minister argued that the current joint council set up between Moscow and NATO in 1997 had to be dissolved and replaced by a new entity that treated Moscow as an equal.

“The essence of our proposal is the creation of a new mechanism of relations between the NATO member states and Russia, so that Russia has a right to a voice, the right to make decisions” within the alliance, Ivanov said.

“In the long-term, this may lead to the renunciation of the existing formats of cooperation between Russia and NATO within the framework of the permanent joint council,” he said.

Ivanov warned the existing joint council “for the most part does not work. Everyone has been convinced of this, and admits it unanimously.”

His comments came just hours before Robertson’s arrival in the Volga region city of Volgograd, the NATO chief’s first stop of a three-day visit to Russia.

Robertson’s choice was steeped in symbolism, with him scheduling a tour of a World War II memorial in Volgograd, then called Stalingrad, where Moscow helped the West turn away Nazi Germany’s advance at great cost.

Robertson and Ivanov were to meet for two hours in Moscow on Thursday, talks that were preceded by London testing the waters with an offer to meet some of the demands voiced by the Russian defence chief on Wednesday.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair stressed that NATO should not grant Russia full membership but still take steps to recognize Moscow’s contribution to international security following the September 11 terrorist strikes on Washington and New York.

Russia had earlier greeted the proposal with a mixture of optimism and caution, welcoming NATO’s shift in favour of cooperation but still stressing that it favoured the creation of a brand new military body where Moscow and the West would have equal rights. —AFP