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Politics : The Iraq War And Beyond -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ed Huang who wrote (3505)	4/3/2004 12:32:09 AM
From: Ed Huang	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9018

Resigned to NATO Enlargement, Russia Reaches Out By John Chalmers BRUSSELS, Belgium (Reuters) - Russia played down its fears of encroachment Friday as NATO expanded into former Soviet territory, but it called on the alliance to stop putting up fences and work with Moscow on new security threats. "As regards NATO, our relations are developing in a positive fashion. We have expressed no fears about expansion. We have said that current threats are such that NATO expansion will not eliminate them," Russian President Vladimir Putin said. His foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, held talks Friday with his NATO counterparts -- just hours after the flags of seven former communist states from Eastern Europe were hoisted for the first time at the alliance's Brussels headquarters. "The very fact that we met today shows we think very highly of this mechanism ... for coming together to face the contemporary threats we all face," Lavrov told a news conference after a NATO-Russia Council meeting, which included the new allies. Moscow sought cooperation with the alliance after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and in 2002 the NATO-Russia Council was set up for cooperation on post-Sept. 11 security issues such as terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction. But there was a barrage of criticism from Moscow last month before Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia joined the alliance -- particularly over the entry of the three Baltic states, once Soviet republics. NATO warplanes this week began air patrols over the Baltic countries, which do not have combat aircraft of their own. "Despite repeated statements by NATO leadership, the military doctrine of the bloc remains offensive," the state Duma said in a nonbinding special resolution Wednesday. It said that if NATO ignored Moscow's concerns the lower house would advise Putin "to adopt appropriate measures to safely guarantee Russia's security." PARANOIA Putin, speaking at a news conference after talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder at his residence outside Moscow, said, "Our specialists have carefully studied the approach of NATO's military infrastructure to our borders ... we will work out our defense and security policy in due accordance with this." Continued ... reuters.com