GOVERNMENT TO DISCUSS NATO AGREEMENT PROPOSALS
RIA Novosti
MOSCOW, February 10 (RIA Novosti) - Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is to submit proposals on accession to the agreement between NATO and other countries participating in the Partnership for Peace program to the Russian government.
According to a Foreign Ministry spokesperson, "the document defines the legal status of Russian servicemen abroad. In particular, the talk is about exercise and transit matters." The agreement also governs the status of foreign military hardware, civilian personnel and servicemen's dependents abroad.
The official noted, "This is a multilateral agreement based on the principle of reciprocity." Thirty-eight countries - all NATO members, most of the CIS members and virtually all EU members, except Malta and Cyprus, are signatories.
The day before, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who had come to Nice for an informal NATO defense ministers' gathering, told the media that work on Russia's approval and ratification of the document had been slow.
"The settlement of the issue has been protracted, but we do need the agreement," Mr. Ivanov said. "Over the past two to three years, we have overcome many myths and suspicions, the vestiges of the Cold War, and switched over to issues of common interest."
He mentioned the fight against terrorism as among those interests.
From the military standpoint, there will no longer be any new breakthroughs in Russia-NATO relations, a ranking Russian Defense Ministry officer told RIA Novosti.
"We have reached the limit in our relations with NATO. Revolutionary solutions or breakthroughs in military matters will no longer take place," he said, adding that the current common Russia-NATO interests are few.
"Maybe NATO is willing to cooperate with us on some projects, but such projects will be of interest to one of the parties only, which, naturally, does not suit us," he said.
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