Source: Global Security Newswire, 6 November 2012
Russia and NATO are slated to hold discussions early next month after a number of months without contact between high-ranking officials from the former Cold War foes, which are engaged in a long-running dispute over missile defence, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Monday said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is anticipated to confer with his opposites from the military alliance on the margins of a Dec.4-5 conference for government foreign policy heads. Such senior-level contact last occurred in April.
Russia disagrees with the military alliance's plans to establish a ballistic missile shield for Europe, seeing in it a serious threat to nuclear stability with the United States. Moscow refuses to accept at face value NATO assertions that the developing antimissile network will be aimed at defending against possible Iranian missile attacks and not at threatening Russia's long-range nuclear weapons.
The NATO chief said no headway has been achieved in reducing the sides' differences over missile defence. "We have invited Russia to cooperate on missile defence," Rasmussen stated, continuing that to date Brussels has "not seen progress at all."
Prospects for a future NATO-Russia antimissile deal will be heavily impacted by Tuesday's US presidential contest. President Obama has signaled he will have greater freedom to negotiate with Moscow if he wins re-election while his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, has pledged to take a hard line in dealing with Moscow.
"I'm awaiting the outcome of the American elections with the same excitement as everyone else," Rasmussen said.