Comment to Russia - NATO summit. Audio

Russian and NATO officials have discussed steps against terrorism and piracy an the Russia-NATO summit in November last year. 

It was the first open talk of two sides for the last 10 years. The main goal was to finish the so called "cold war" between the Alliance and Russia. 

However, even after this big and loud conversation the final decision about main points like missile defence have not been found yet. 

This week Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has said  that Russia wants an unambiguous answer from NATO over Moscow's role in a European missile defence shield.

He stated that Russia will deploy nuclear weapons if no agreement is reached.

Does that mean that relationship between two sides is still very strained?

Here is the comment about this meeting and NATO and RUSSIA relationship of political scientist Natalia Leschenko from the Institute for State Ideologies in London. 

 

Russia and NATO have written a new chapter in world history

NATO and Russia will develop a European missile defense system and assess security threats. These are the main results of the summit in Lisbon.

In Lisbon, the partnership between NATO and Russia was founded. Big words, but they all backed up by specific intentions.

Of course, there was a thesis about the common threats - it is terrorism, drug trafficking, piracy, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

To agree on missile defense

The main discussion at the summit was on missile defense. Russia agreed to participate in creating a European missile defense system, but participate on an equal basis. If this does not happen, then there is a real danger of a new arms race, Medvedev said.

According to his words, Russia is interested in predictable defense strategy. So, construction relations with NATO as the largest military-political bloc will be depended from this fact.

The Afghan issue

 The situation in Afghanistan is too unstable and too big terrorist threat emanating from there, agreed the members of the summit. So it is doubted that the international forces can be withdrawn from the country in the near future.

 At the same time, Medvedev said, Russia is ready to extend assistance to the international forces to ensure security in Afghanistan.

Russia and NATO

Russian and NATO officials are going to discuss steps against terrorism and piracy, and Afghanistan ahead of the Russia-NATO summit today.  The main goal is to finish the so called "cold war" between the Alliance and Russia. 

This further political meeting has already been called historical. It’s the first time they have come together to discuss these issues. Both sides are expecting a lot from it.

While two years ago summit talks about placing NATO forces near Russian borders leaded to strain their relations. One of the main topics of this meeting is progress on European security. 

The Russian president Dmitriy Medvedev stated that this is the right moment for real change. As Vesti.ru quoted his words: “We are discussing a lot of different questions including a new collective missile defence system for Europe"

The main unsolved problem

NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen said it is time the Alliance and Russia stopped tracking each other through their gunsights and become close partners (Vesti.ru).

Despite the expected agreement on possible missile-defence cooperation, Russia had continuing concerns that the system could be directed against it. 

Russia's ambassador to NATO, Dmitriy Ragozin said the alliance should put restrictions on the missile-defence system's "geography, quality and quantity" (Vesti.ru).