BRUSSELS – Nato yesterday agreed to gradually resume contacts with Russia which were suspended after Moscow’s intervention in Georgia. Nato also put off a decision on putting Ukraine and Georgia on formal membership tracks.
Meeting in Brussels, the allies reaffirmed a pledge – which had angered Russia – that former Soviet states Georgia and Ukraine would one day join the alliance and agreed to step up help to them in that process.
But going into her last Nato meeting, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice dodged confrontation with allies by dropping previous US resistance to restarting talks with Russia, and reached a compromise in a squabble with Germany over how to manage the entry ambitions of Ukraine and Georgia. The outcome leaves any real decisions on closer alliance ties with Russia, Georgia and Ukraine to the incoming president-elect Barack Obama.
Nato secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the 26 Nato states had asked him to see what political contacts would be possible with Moscow and said the suspended ambassador-level Nato-Russia Council would meet again on an informal basis. “Allies agreed on what I would qualify as a conditional and graduated re-engagement with Russia.”
He stressed though that this did not mean Nato had changed its view that Russia had used “disproportionate” force in invading Georgia in August, or that it was acceptable for Russia to threaten to station missiles near Nato borders. Russia’s envoy to Nato, Dmitry Rogozin, said Moscow would wait before reacting to the announcement. The Nato decision came hours after the 27-member EU resumed talks on a broad-ranging partnership pact with Moscow, reflecting EU acceptance that any attempt to isolate a key energy partner could damage European interests. – (Reuters)