Blog Posts tagged with "Moscow"

I’ve just returned home from several days in Russia, a country which has always fascinated me. We need to learn more about Russia if we are going to find ways to improve our cooperation with them in a NATO context.

During a wreath laying ceremony at the Hall of Military Glory in Volgograd, Russia

My visit was part of NATO’s outreach and desire to develop a “true strategic partnership with Russia,” as it says in the Strategic Concept approved at the Lisbon Summit last fall. In my role as the Supreme Allied Commander, I continue to search for zones of cooperation with the Russian military.

The meetings in Moscow and Volgograd were all very useful. I spent lots of time with my colleague and friend General Nikolay Makarov, the energetic and thoughtful Chief of the General Staff (the counterpart of newly installed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Marty Dempsey).

Joint press statement at the Russian MoD

General Makarov is working hard on reforming the Russian military, including developing a professional NCO corps, enhanching officer training and mobility, creating a new rational command structure, focusing on more high technology weapons systems and changing tactical structures to include a brigade-level combat formation. He faces great challenges, but is attacking them directly.

We also talked about the US missile defense system for Europe, which is beginning to take shape. This eight year project will arrive in phases and it consists of AEGIS missile ships at sea, land-based radars and eventually land-based missiles systems.

Wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow.

The US missile defense system will eventually connect with a NATO structure, and the hope is to achieve some level of coordination and cooperation with Russia. While there are technical and political challenges which we discussed frankly, I remain very hopeful and cautiously optimistic these can be overcome through dialog and transparency on both sides — time will tell.

In meetings with Foreign Minister Lavrov and National Security Advisor Patrushef, we also discussed missile defense. I met with Ambassador Dimitry Rogozin, the Russian Ambassador to NATO, who is the practical connection at the political level on all of these efforts.

Two other key topics were Afghanistan and piracy operations — in both spheres we have good cooperation with the Russian Federation. In Afghanistan, Russia has been broadly supportive of coalition efforts including affording us key transit rights, selling and donating equipment to the Afghans, and helping strongly on counter-narcotic efforts.

The piracy operation is likewise a good model of cooperation, with Russian ships alongside NATO vessels (and ships from the European Union, many Gulf states, China, and India as well). While the challenges off the Horn of Africa persist, Russian cooperation and coordination has been very helpful and we discussed how to improve it.

Battle of Stalingrad war memorial: "Motherland Calls"

On the final day, while flying home, I visited in the south of Russia with the leadership of the Russia’s Southern Military District Commander. We focused on their recent military exercises and regional security perspectives.

While there, I had a chance to see the massive memorial to the Battle of Stalingrad. It is a huge statue of a Russian woman with a sword, inspiring and protecting those headed into battle. In 1942, in perhaps the pivotal battle of Europe, nearly 3 million people died during the roughly 200 days of the battle. At the briefings later, one of the Russian Generals said simply but emotionally, “they died for Russia.”

While we certainly have areas of disagreement with Russia, the potential to improve an already reasonable level of operational cooperation with NATO is high. This trip convinced me that we should continue to pursue ways in which NATO and Russia can work together.

Best,
Jim

Admiral, USN
Supreme Allied Commander, Europe
Commander, US European Command
“Stronger Together”