05 March 2009

NATO Agrees to Resume High-Level Ties with Russia

Enhancing Afghanistan security mission continues to challenge NATO

Clinton, foreground, talks with the Albanian foreign minister, right, and the Croatian foreign minister, center, at NATO headquarters.

By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer

Washington — NATO must find ways to manage differences with Russia and work constructively in areas of common interest, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says.

“It’s time to explore a fresh start. We can and must find ways to work constructively with Russia where we share areas of common interest, including helping the people of Afghanistan, arms control and nonproliferation, counterpiracy and counternarcotics and addressing threats posed by Iran and North Korea,” Clinton said March 5 at an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.

Clinton urged revival of the NATO-Russia Council, a forum created in 2002, as a mechanism for direct dialogue with Moscow. The council was suspended after a five-day war between Russia and Georgia over Georgia’s breakaway provinces Abkhazia and South Ossetia in August 2008. Russia has also disagreed with the United States over plans announced during the Bush administration to install a 10-silo missile defense system in Poland and an missile-warning radar station in the Czech Republic, which is part of a broader missile defense system to protect U.S. allies in Europe.

Vice President Biden travels to Brussels the week of March 9 to meet with the North Atlantic Council, which is the principal forum for NATO’s 26 member states. Biden will consult with NATO allies on Afghanistan and Pakistan to ensure their views help inform the strategic review ordered by President Obama, the White House said.

Biden will also meet with the NATO leadership and senior leaders of the European Union, which is headquartered in Brussels, and with Belgian officials.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer echoed Clinton’s remarks, saying NATO needed to take the next steps in re-engagement with Russia.

“While not shying away from the serious differences of opinion that remain between NATO and Russia, in particular about Georgia, we also acknowledge that we have obvious common interests with Russia: Afghanistan is one, but counterterrorism and the fight against [weapons of mass destruction] proliferation are others," de Hoop Scheffer said.

The NATO foreign ministers agreed to resume high-level formal talks with Russia after Lithuania withdrew its objections to restarting the NATO-Russia Council. De Hoop Scheffer said the foreign ministers agreed to resume the NATO-Russia Council, including at the ministerial level after the 60th-anniversary NATO Summit in April.

“Russia is a global player. Not talking to them is not an option,” de Hoop Scheffer said.

“This decision is a step in the right direction, and we note with satisfaction that common sense has prevailed at NATO,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Igor Lyakin-Frolov told Russian news agencies March 5 in Moscow.

NATO BILATERAL MEETINGS

Before the foreign ministers meeting, de Hoop Scheffer held a series of bilateral meetings, including a meeting with Clinton, who is making her first visit to Brussels as secretary of state. The informal meetings are a prelude to the NATO Summit April 3–4. Defense Secretary Robert Gates attended a NATO defense ministers meeting in February in Krakow, Poland.

Clinton said NATO must keep the door to membership open for Ukraine and Georgia even though Russia is opposed.

Clinton meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva, Switzerland, March 6 “to discuss a wide range of critical matters where we can cooperate and those where we have differences,” she said.

President Obama is expected to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on the sidelines of the G20 economic conference of advanced and developing economies in London April 2 just before the NATO Summit.

CALL FOR MORE TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN

Clinton called on NATO members to provide more military troops for Afghanistan as the United States prepares to dispatch an additional 17,000 U.S. forces. The deployments will consist of an 8,000-strong Marine expeditionary brigade in the spring and a 4,000-strong Army Stryker brigade in the summer, along with 5,000 support personnel.

The deployment will constitute a 50 percent increase to the 36,000 U.S. forces already on the ground in Afghanistan. Half serve in the 41-nation NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, while others lead a separate mission dedicated to training Afghan security forces and conducting counterterrorism operations.

Clinton proposed a high-level international conference to map a new strategy for Afghanistan and said Pakistan would be part of the talks. The conference would be convened by the United Nations March 31, if approved.

“We hope that this meeting could provide an opportunity to reach a common set of principles, perhaps embodied in a chairman’s statement on a common way forward,” Clinton said.

The secretary is midway through a trip to the Middle East and Europe that began in Egypt and will conclude in Ankara, Turkey, before she returns to Washington. She has held consultations in Jerusalem and in Ramallah in the West Bank.

Clinton announced at a press briefing after the NATO ministers met that Obama would visit Britain, France, Germany and the Czech Republic between March 31 and April 5.

“President Obama is committed, as I am, to strengthening the trans-Atlantic alliance, to supporting a strong Europe that is a strong partner to the United States, and to energize our partnerships to confront the common challenges of our time,” Clinton said.

Ask Secretary Clinton a question online about her trip to the Middle East and Europe.

What foreign affairs actions should President Obama consider? Comment on America.gov’s blog.