MOSCOW, Nov 22: NATO Secretary General George Robertson promised Russia a new post-Cold war partnership on Thursday as he met Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov to discuss giving Moscow an unprecedented voice in Western military affairs.

“Once again we are in a coalition against a common enemy, the common enemy of global terrorism,” he said as he began talks in the defence ministry in Moscow.

Western nations and Moscow, bitter foes for four decades during the Cold War, had “wasted an opportunity” after fighting Nazi Germany together in World War II.

“You and I have an obligation to build something better and more permanent. We cannot build the security of future without Russia being an intimate partner of that relationship,” said Robertson.

Ivanov told the NATO chief that his visit came “at an interesting time because modern threats are pushing us towards new levels of cooperation,” with Russia a staunch ally in the US-led anti-terrorism coalition.

“As Russia has underlined many times, Russia is prepared for cooperation on an equal basis,” said the Russian defence minister, who accepted an invitation to visit NATO headquarters in Brussels next month.

Ivanov pointed to three fields of cooperation: terrorism, non-proliferation, and the drugs trade.

But in signs of continued tensions over contested US plans for a national missile defence system, he told Robertson that “no country can defend by surrounding itself with a fence, no matter how high that fence is.”

In a symbolic start to his three-day visit, Robertson earlier on Thursday laid a wreath at a World War II memorial in the southern city of Volgograd.

The Soviet Red Army turned away Nazi Germany forces in the city, then known as Stalingrad, in a horrific battle that marked the last time Moscow and Western allies fought a common enemy and won.

Robertson spoke of “cooperation and trust” developing between the two sides since the September 11 strikes in the United States.

“Russia and NATO are both essential security players in Europe,” he added. “Neither can be ignored.”

Robertson was due to meet Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

The Western alliance has given a sympathetic hearing to Moscow’s demands as the two sides’ relations continue to improve following Putin’s unambiguous declaration of support for the US military campaign in Afghanistan.

Ahead of Thursday’s talks, Russia’s defence minister declared that Moscow was seeking the “right to a voice” within the Atlantic alliance following the West’s warm reception of the Kremlin’s cooperation with the US-led campaign. However, Washington and Moscow still have to surmount serious disagreements on the defence front, including the Alliance’s planned expansion into the Baltics and southeastern Europe.

Ivanov said on the eve of Robertson’s visit many of these issues could be resolved if Moscow were given the “right to a voice” within NATO.

He argued that the current Permanent Joint Council (PJC) set up between Moscow and NATO in 1997 should be dissolved and replaced by a new entity that treated Moscow as an equal.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has suggested creating a new joint council opening new possibilities for decision-making and joint action in trouble spots of common concern like the Balkans.—AFP