Europe and the United States must work together so that Russia cannot
exploit their differences to brake NATO enlargement into easternEurope, the Assistant General Secretary ofNATO said today.
Mr Klaus-Peter Klaiber welcomed growing NATO and EU cooperation,notably since the launch last year of the EU's common defenceinitiative, but said this must be strengthened.
"How Russia settles in the new Europe is a key question for thecontinent's stability and security," he told a summit of 10ex- communist countries in the Slovak capital Bratislava.
Strengthening EU-NATO cooperation "would eliminate any Russiantemptation to play Europe and America against each other," added MrKlaiber.
The EU's defence initiative has fuelled an ongoing debate oncoordination of future NATO and EU security operations, for examplein the Balkans. Several prime ministers of ex-communist countriesunderlined their desire to join both the European Union and NATO,which is expected to invite new members at a summit in Prague latenextyear.
The US ambassador to NATO, Mr Alexander Vershbow, agreed that NATOand the EU must cooperate with each other.
"This relationship should not be seen as a competitive one.Competition is silly since we can obviously be more effective byacting together," he said.
AFP