VILNIUS, April 21: NATO signed a landmark military cooperation accord with Russia on Thursday, highlighting progress in strengthening their ties at a first-ever ministerial meeting of the alliance on ex-Soviet soil. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov inked the deal with his NATO counterparts including US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at talks in Lithuania, one of three ex-Soviet republics to join the alliance last year.
Other key items on the menu of the two-day informal talks include the future of alliance missions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo — as well as reflection on a possible NATO role in the Middle East.
The “status of forces agreement” between NATO and Moscow will make it easier for the two sides to organize joint exercises and training and, for example, allow NATO troops to transit through Russian territory and vice versa.
NATO officials call the accord a key step forward in relations with Moscow, which were transformed by the geopolitical changes after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States.
The agreement “is indeed a milestone of NATO-Russia cooperation. It is also a clear signal that the course of cooperation... is fixed and well on track,” said NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
The accord, which will have to be ratified by the Russian Duma before entering into force, could for example be used to cover NATO troops heading for Afghanistan, where the alliance heads a peacekeeping force, said a spokesman.
The signature came at two-day informal talks among NATO foreign ministers which began over dinner late on Wednesday with a debate on the Middle East.
Specifically, presentations on the issue were made by Ms Rice and Spain’s Miguel Angel Moratinos, who said they would broach “a possible role for NATO and how it could help the peace process.”
The issue touches on sensitive diplomatic areas: France has already made it clear it would oppose any significant NATO role in the Middle East, saying the alliance has “no vocation” in the peace process.
More broadly the ministers are debating a US-backed plan to give NATO — which was nearly torn apart by the 2003 Iraq war — a bigger role as a forum for political dialogue.
The US secretary of state arrived in Vilnius directly from the Russian capital, where she criticized Russia’s democratic record but called Moscow a “strategic partner.”
Rice, as well as attending the talks with her Russian counterpart on Thursday, will also sit in on a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission.
The former Soviet republic has sent feelers out about eventual membership in NATO after last year’s “Orange Revolution,” which fueled tensions between Moscow and the West after pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko won the presidency.
Ms Rice on Wednesday notably said it was “time for change” in another ex-Soviet republic, Belarus, following those in Ukraine and Georgia. Those comments may give food for thought in her talks with Lavrov on Thursday.—AFP
