The NATO-Russia Council (NRC) approved an “ambitious” 2011 work plan to "deepen and broaden" military cooperation during a meeting in Brussels this week. The plan covers six main areas of partnership, including the fight against terrorism and piracy, logistics, joint search and rescue operations at sea, as well as theatre missile defence and military academic exchanges.
The NRC military representatives also approved the Council's ‘Consolidated Glossary of Cooperation’, which contains over 6,000 terms and covers key areas of NATO-Russia political and military cooperation. The glossary is to be published later this year under the joint editorship of the chief of the Russian General Staff, Army Gen. Nikolai Makarov and NATO Military Committee Chairman, Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola.
Counter-terrorism was on the agenda, in the wake of the Moscow airport bombing, in which dozens were killed and many wounded. Gen. Makarov said: “This terrorist attack in Moscow came with a great lost of life. It’s a terrible event, which must be investigated. Those behind it must be punished. We have discussed the prospects of Russia-NATO cooperation in this field”. His counterpart, Admiral Michael Mullen, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said: “There is, I think, plenty of room for all of us to work together. In my relationship with General Makarov, and in the US relationship with Russia, we have actually spent a fair amount of time looking at how we work together from a counter-terrorism standpoint, and certainly I think there is opportunity for NATO to do the same thing”.
However, Russian and NATO military officials failed to make headway in resolving their differing views on the establishment of a joint European territorial missile defence system (see NATO Watch News Brief, 26 January). Russian envoy Dmitry Rogozin told journalists that NATO's missile defence aspirations "could not be called cooperation. It's not even a marriage of convenience. It's like living separately in different apartments". Gen. Makarov called for Russian specialists to be intimately involved over the long-term in establishing the missile shield.