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Lavrov upset by NATO’s ambiguous stance on Russia
Published: 26 September, 2010, 03:28
Edited: 27 September, 2010, 05:36
Whether Russia attends NATO’s November's summit could depend on the attitude the Alliance displays towards Moscow, Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
As ties between Moscow and NATO are warming, Russia has been invited to take part in the organization's upcoming summit in Lisbon.
However Lavrov, who spoke about threats and challenges in the modern world in his interview with a weekly Russian news show, did not seem in a hurry to agree to the invitation.
“Just before our flight to New York, we were invited to NATO's summit in Lisbon in November…Today, Russia asks several major questions. When it gets the answers, Russia will decide whether or not to attend. The first is: what attitude will be chosen towards Russia? The second is: how will NATO regard itself in relation to international law, and the prerogatives of the UN Security Council?” Lavrov said.
This week at a United Nations assembly in New York, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Russia and NATO could not afford to have poor relations and needed to improve ties in order to cooperate more closely on a number of issues.
“It is important that NATO members called for intensifying cooperation on practical issues – on Afghanistan, the fight against drug trafficking, terrorism, and missile defense,” Lavrov agreed.
“With regards to future strategy, it is necessary to understand the basis of our interaction. For instance, the 10-year-old Rome Declaration, which implies the principle of indivisibility of security, can take a new step forward – to take security equality across the Euro-Atlantic region and make it legally binding. And I was really surprised that NATO's reaction was that the Euro-Atlantic security architecture does not need this, or any other new documents, to refresh cooperation.”
Lavrov praised NATO’s strategic ideas, saying they “reflect modern-day realities and needs”, but lamented the alliance’s ambiguous position regarding Russia.
“On one hand, we are a partner but, on the other… NATO's new members should be protected from us,” he said.
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I am sorry but the current Russia’s Foreign Minister, who is very capable career diplomat, nevertheless protests too much. He knows that encircling Russia is NATO’s mission. NATO is doing that. His assistants should read this link. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=21200
What is Russia up to? What does Russia wants? Why Russia is letting down Iran opening the door to an aggression from the US from Israel? Has Russia been threatened to toe the line or else? Can't Russia see that whatever is done by the West it is only through self interest, that the moment it does not serve their purposes they throw you away like a used tissue? Honestly I was counting on Russia(also China) to put some limits to the West destruction of other nations etc. The enemies of our Earth are the USA, Israel and almost the rest of the West. The West is a belligerent entity. Russia should stand her grounds. Russia has nothing to gain short medium long terms to become accomplicit to the West's crimes agaisnt humanity. Don't go to the gangsters' nato summit...
I would not quite put it this way. Foreign Minister Lavrov is not "upset". We are talking about a diplomat that will be remembered in history, and has risen already far an above his colleagues in this dangerous world of contemporary diplomacy. No, far from being "upset", Lavrov seems to be following a clearly laid out long term strategy for "calming" the mess created by the challenges to non-proliferation treaty. The use of nuclear power for energy has always been the right of signatories of NPT, but has never really been tested in reality. How is to be determined that the enrichment is not used for future nuclear program? Iran is the perfect candidate for the test. Not being under the sponsorship of West, the country can be a good limust test for an attempt to separate politics from nuclear energy in international relations. UN sanctions, IAEA reports and politics, all are leading up to the same drawn out point. How to legitimize a nuclear program of a country when the country does not fall under the control of Western block. Other countries are added to the stage (and waiting list): Turkey and Brazil. Having agreed to and complied with UN SC sanctions, Russia can legitimately ask: where does this thing tend to? What is the purpose? To start with, "sanctions" that are the work of the legislations of individual countries cannot be expected to be applied over and above UN SC sanctions, as they undermine the UN SC. The room for EU/US maneuver is narrowing. Use of extra-UN sanctions is challenged, so pretty much only military option is on the table. No matter how one looks at it, potential gain is paltry compared to the potential loss of such an adventure. NATO-Russia meeting is being conditioned this time, and it is on both fronts: relationship to Russia and to Iran. Such steady, patient diplomatic process is the key to creating a pat position. The more the dominant power sits in pat position, the more credibility it looses.