PEACE & SECURITY | Creating a more stable world
04 April 2008
NATO-Russia Council Concludes 2008 Bucharest Summit
Moscow pledges new support for alliance’s Afghanistan mission
Washington -- NATO leaders and Russian President Vladimir Putin have reaffirmed a number of areas of security cooperation, including airspace management, civil emergency planning, scientific cooperation and environmental security.
In a communiqué issued following the NATO-Russia Council’s closed-door session April 4, Russia announced that it would open a new shipping corridor through its territory for nonmilitary goods and supplies in support of NATO’s security and peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan. Specific details of the land corridor have not been announced.
“It’s basically to facilitate the operations,” explained a senior U.S. administration official April 4, “and is evidence of Russia stepping up and doing more to help the effort in Afghanistan, and that's a good thing.”
The land corridor supports a U.N. Security Council resolution that calls on Afghanistan's neighboring nations to provide overflight clearances and transit clearances to assist the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
The NATO-Russia Council meeting concluded the April 2-4 Summit, held in Bucharest, Romania.
Despite political differences on Kosovo, council members expressed their commitment to “a stable, democratic, multiethnic, peaceful and secure future for the Western Balkans” and pledged that security in the former Serbian province remains a priority, according to the communiqué. NATO also provides a crucial 16,000-strong security force in Kosovo.
Both sides also agreed to continue discussions on a U.S. proposal for a limited missile defense system, a plan endorsed by the alliance on April 3 that remains a concern for Russia. The plan calls for the placement of 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and an advanced radar facility in the Czech Republic.
While redefining relations with Russia has been a unique priority for NATO since 1991, the 2002 NATO Summit in Rome saw the creation of the NATO-Russia Council, a new forum for member states to come together as equal partners to identify and pursue common security challenges, including counterterrorism, proliferation and narcotics trafficking, according to NATO.
“Today, our relations are truly multifaceted, influenced both by political realities and issues on which we differ, as well as by practical and very pragmatic common interests,” said NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
Through the council, Moscow maintains liaison officers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, partners in the alliance’s theatre missile defense efforts and actively participates in a regular series of joint military exercises. Since 2006, Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has joined the 28-nation trans-Atlantic alliance in patrolling the Mediterranean under Operation Active Endeavour.
After the summit, President Bush traveled to Croatia to congratulate Croatians on their successful NATO membership bid in Bucharest. Bush will complete his travels in Europe with a visit to the Black Sea resort of Sochi for talks with Putin on missile defense cooperation and bilateral relations, and a meeting with Putin’s incoming successor, Dmitry Medvedev.
