Moving beyond strained relations (European Voice, Brussels)
The areas of mutual interest between Russia and NATO are very broad and the potential for co-operation is significant. Indeed, to a certain extent, the future of read more...
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In an apparent rebuke over US policy in fighting narcotics trade in Afghanistan as compared to Washington's approach towards the similar issue in South America, Rogozin also said that the US was waging a drug war in Colombia because that was the primary source of cocaine that goes to America, yet it has failed to give due attention to the scourge of trafficking in Afghanistan. "But in the case of the heroin which goes to Russia, they are doing practically nothing," he insisted, complaining that it was not the proper way to treat "your friends and partners." Meanwhile, Viktor Ivanov, director of Russia's Federal Service for the Control of Narcotics said his country has handed over several data on Afghan and Central Asian drug dealers to US drug enforcement chief Gil Kerlikowski at their fourth meeting in less than a year, Reuters reported
Russia's ambassador to NATO called Wednesday on the alliance's leadership to support Russia's initiative to develop an international legal framework to deal with pirates on the high seas. "I turn to NATO and to the secretary general personally with a proposal to show political will and exert influence on certain Western states that are currently skeptical of ... Russia's resolution sent to the UN, which refers to the fact that the UN secretary general should present within three months various options for prosecuting pirates," Dmitry Rogozin told RIA Novosti. He warned that without the proper legal framework, the fight against piracy will always be "a game of cowboys and Indians" in which the pirates are caught and then released. Many NATO ambassadors consider piracy not just a regional, but an international problem, Rogozin said after a Russian-NATO discussion on ways of fighting piracy in Brussels
Russia has been negotiating anti-piracy measures with the US, the EU and NATO, the country’s Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told the RIA-Novosti news agency Friday. He added that on Thursday he and his Italian counterpart met in Rome to discuss the piracy situation off the African Horn. “Since the international community has not yet passed a package of laws on sea piracy, the Russian sailors, who rescued the Moskovsky Universitet tanker, had to release the pirates”, Mr. Serdyukov said
Russia expects concrete NATO proposals on common missile defence in the Euro-Atlantic area. Russia’s NATO Ambassador Dmitry Rogozin was speaking about this in an interview Wednesday a few days after NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen unveiled a vision of an anti-missile shield protecting the hemispheric belt from Vancouver to Vladivostok. Mr. Rogozin also urged NATO to disclose its unilateral missile defence plans, before inviting Russia to cooperate. Decisions about NATO’s system are to be made at the Alliance’s next summit in Lisbon in November
Jim Brann from the Stop the War coalition in London believes that the durability of central power in Afghanistan is very doubtful. “Years of private contractors in Afghanistan, as in Iraq, is a major factor and a major new development,” Brann told RT. “I think a few months ago it was estimated that there were more private contractors than were US troops, so they have become the biggest foreign contingent. In fact, in Afghanistan a lot of these people are locally recruited. They get paid considerably more than the Afghan national army.”
Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's blunt-spoken ambassador to NATO, laid out its position: While the U.S. still has nuclear weapons abroad, "we have already withdrawn all the tactical nuclear weapons of Russia back home," from the territories of former East European allies and ex-Soviet republics. "We are now expecting some steps on the U.S. side," Rogozin told the AP — namely the voluntary pullback of the B-61s to U.S. soil. Today's American "hot potatoes," as Rogozin dubbed them, date back to the 1950s and a U.S. effort to demonstrate a nuclear commitment to Western European defense by embedding such weapons near the potential battlefield. Some credit these binational "dual-key" missions with dissuading more Europeans from developing their own atomic arms in the old standoff with the Soviet bloc
Russia urges NATO to stop dragging its feet over Russian initiatives for international laws and courts that allow the family of nations to arraign pirates. Its Ambassador to the Alliance Dmitri Rogozin says such laws and courts would resolve an intolerable situation in which sea brigands from failed states like Somalia cannot be properly brought to justice anywhere in the world. The Russian law of the sea expert Professor Anatoli Kolodkin runs through plausible options. The proposed court could be global, like the ones already sitting in The Hague. It could be regional, with a jurisdiction across the Horn of Africa. It could also function in the form of an internationally-enhanced chamber of an existing court in an interested country, for instance, Kenya. A code of laws for it is also of essence, said Anatoli Kolodkin
Russia will seek direct opportunities to sell weapons to NATO member states, according to Russia's envoy to the alliance, Dmitry Rogozin. He also said Moscow is considering sending weapons to Afghanistan to assist its present government. In return, the Alliance might lift all barriers for free military trade between Moscow and NATO member states. Last December, the alliance's secretary general asked Russia to supply Kabul with military helicopters
Russia is tying helicopter supplies to Afghanistan with permission to sell arms to NATO countries, the Kremlin’s Ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said during a Moscow-Brussels video conference on Tuesday. “We are seeking an opportunity for the Russian defense industry to trade its products within the alliance’s member-states. We will earn money and they will acquire reliable quality weapons,” Rogozin said
Moscow wants the US to remove all its tactical nuclear weapons from Europe, Russia's envoy in NATO Dmitry Rogozin said during a video conference in Brussels. He said that Moscow wants to see real progress in this field. At the same time he said that Russia is not going to remove its tactical weapons on the borders with the European countries in return. The Russian diplomat also said that in the near future the Russian government would decide on supplying combat helicopters to NATO forces in Afghanistan. NATO's General Secretary Anders Rasmussen submitted a request to Moscow to that effect in late 2009. A regular session of NATO-Russia's Council will be held in Brussels on May 5
“We have been ready to negotiate with NATO experts for a long time. If the alliance’s offer of missile defense cooperation is confirmed, we are ready to start clarifying positions on Monday,” Rogozin said. In his opinion, experts may start their deliberations at the May 19 meeting of the Russia-NATO Council. Rasmussen said in Tallinn that a common missile defense system would be much more efficient, and Russia could contribute to the project
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Important Issues
June 08, 2010
The first weekly media briefing in June by the Russian MFA Spokesman Andrey Nesterenko
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April 30, 2010
Sergey Lavrov at the 61st Parliamentary Assembly Session
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Documents
August 18, 2008
Statement of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
June 5, 2008
Dmitry Medvedev's Speech at Meeting with German Political, Parliamentary and Civic Leaders
April 4, 2008
Chairman’s statement: Meeting of the NATO-Russia Council at the level of Heads of State and Government held in Bucharest
April 3, 2008
Bucharest Summit Declaration, issued by the Heads of State and Government participating in the meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Bucharest on 3 April 2008
February 22, 2007
Vladimir Putin's Speech and the Following Discussion at the Munich Conference on Security Policy
All documents
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