Reuters AlertNet Full site
Homepage | Newsdesk | NGO Latest | Crisis briefings | Country profiles | MediaWatch | Jobs | Alerting | Login

NEWSDESK

NATO, Russia to resume high-level contacts Friday
18 Dec 2008 11:43:38 GMT
Source: Reuters
(Adds details)

BRUSSELS, Dec 18 (Reuters) - NATO and Russia will on Friday hold their first high-level contact since the alliance froze ties with Moscow after its intervention into Georgia this August, a NATO official said.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer will meet Dmitry Rogozin, the Russian ambassador to the alliance, in a move towards repairing disrupted ties, a NATO official said.

"It will be an informal lunch in Brussels," the official said.

The 26-member NATO agreed this month to gradually resume contacts with Russia, with European allies arguing that the freeze in ties was counter to NATO's security interests.

De Hoop Scheffer said then the allies had asked him to see what political contacts would be possible and that the suspended ambassador-level NATO-Russia Council (NRC) would meet again on an informal basis at some point.

The NATO official said the purpose of the meeting would be for de Hoop Scheffer to assess when that might be possible.

Rogozin was quoted by Russia's Interfax news agency as saying he had agreed on a "road map" on restoring relations in meetings with NATO officials this week and that he would have a working meeting with de Hoop Scheffer.

Russia has welcomed NATO's announcement that it wanted to repair ties, saying it does not want a new Cold War. It says it had to act against Georgian aggression.

At the NATO meeting early this month, de Hoop Scheffer stressed that the alliance shift did not mean it had changed its view that Russia had used "disproportionate" force in invading Georgia, or that it was acceptable for Russia to threaten to station missiles near NATO borders as it did last month.

The allies also reaffirmed a pledge -- which had greatly angered Russia -- that former Soviet states Georgia and Ukraine would one day join the alliance and pledged to step up help to them in that process.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; editing by Mark John)


AlertNet news is provided by

Email this article       Send comments

Emergencies

•  Georgia, Abkhazia, S. Ossetia

MORE >>

NGO latest

•  Year ahead: Increased forced migrations, continued lack of quality food, and water shortages, warns NGO
CWS

•  UMCOR Hotline for December 16, 2008
UMCOR - USA

•  2008 Year in Pictures
Children Intl - USA

•  ADRA Achieves Charity Navigator's Top Honor for Fourth Consecutive Year
ADRA - International

•  NEW LAW TO KEEP U.S. TAX DOLLARS FROM FUNDING USE OF CHILD SOLDIERS ABROAD
WV - USA

MORE >>

Latest news

•  NATO, Russia to resume high-level contacts Friday

•  Over 30 Iraq Interior Ministry officials detained

•  NATO, Russia to resume high-level contacts Friday

•  Livni moderates dominate party's election list

•  Livni moderates dominate party's election list

MORE >>
AlertNet news is provided by

Del.icio.us Del.icio.us  |   Digg Digg  |   NewsVine NewsVine  |   Reddit Reddit   
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-12-15T134855Z_01_KIE01_RTRIDSP_2_UKRAINE_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/KIE01.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-12-15T134754Z_01_KIE03_RTRIDSP_2_UKRAINE_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/KIE03.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-12-03T015427Z_01_POY0569_RTRIDSP_2_GEORGIA-OSSETIA_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/POY0569.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-11-15T131300Z_01_MOS01_RTRIDSP_2_RUSSIA-PRESIDENCY_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/MOS01.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-11-14T184245Z_01_MOS004_RTRIDSP_2_RUSSIA-PRESIDENCY_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/MOS004.htm

An anarchist supporter prepares a Molotov's cocktail during a demonstration in support of students in Greece in front of the Greek embassy in Kiev, December 15, 2008. The Molotov's cocktail was ...



Disclaimers |  Copyright |  Privacy |  Contact Us |  Feedback |  About Us |  RSS XML

Last updated:Thu Dec 18 11:46:50 2008