Individual European countries should sign up to a legally-binding security pact that includes Russia in a new structure over-arching the EU and NATO, Russian diplomats will propose at a meeting of NATO ambassadors in Brussels on Monday (28 July). The pact would be negotiated at a special international forum convened by Russia and could embrace emerging powers Brazil and India, Central Asian states and existing international security alliances such as the EU, NATO, the OSCE, the CIS and the CSTO. Moscow: keen to formalise its role as a major world player The treaty would handle "problems" such as NATO enlargement, illegal migration, drug trafficking, organised crime and terrorism, Russian NATO ambassador Dmitry Rogozin told the New York Times, admitting the idea is unlikely to get a warm welcome at first. "We do not expect immediate reaction on the part of our western partners, or booing or, on the contrary, applause," he said, with western analysts arguing the proposed Russian set-up would weaken NATO by subjecting it to external vetoes.
Individual European countries should sign up to a legally-binding security pact that includes Russia in a new structure over-arching the EU and NATO, Russian diplomats will propose at a meeting of NATO ambassadors in Brussels on Monday (28 July).
The pact would be negotiated at a special international forum convened by Russia and could embrace emerging powers Brazil and India, Central Asian states and existing international security alliances such as the EU, NATO, the OSCE, the CIS and the CSTO.
Moscow: keen to formalise its role as a major world player
The treaty would handle "problems" such as NATO enlargement, illegal migration, drug trafficking, organised crime and terrorism, Russian NATO ambassador Dmitry Rogozin told the New York Times, admitting the idea is unlikely to get a warm welcome at first.
"We do not expect immediate reaction on the part of our western partners, or booing or, on the contrary, applause," he said, with western analysts arguing the proposed Russian set-up would weaken NATO by subjecting it to external vetoes.
BERLIN: Russia's ambassador to NATO said Monday that the Kremlin had no intention of undermining the NATO military alliance or, for that matter, any other organization established during the Cold War. "Our ideas are profoundly misunderstood," Dmitri Rogozin, Russia's envoy to the trans-Atlantic alliance, told NATO's top diplomats during a two-hour meeting in which he said the Kremlin was working on a new foreign policy concept. Central to that concept are plans for establishing a security structure that would stretch from Canada across Russia to China. But military experts suspect such a new forum could eventually supersede NATO, of which Russia is not a member, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, in which Russia is a member and plays a big role. Russia, increasingly wealthy, thanks to energy exports, and thus newly confident, is prepared to adopt a more assertive foreign policy stance, President Dmitri Medvedev made clear in his speech to Russian ambassadors this month. He proposed "a modern European architecture that would be designed for 21st-century realities."
BERLIN: Russia's ambassador to NATO said Monday that the Kremlin had no intention of undermining the NATO military alliance or, for that matter, any other organization established during the Cold War.
"Our ideas are profoundly misunderstood," Dmitri Rogozin, Russia's envoy to the trans-Atlantic alliance, told NATO's top diplomats during a two-hour meeting in which he said the Kremlin was working on a new foreign policy concept.
Central to that concept are plans for establishing a security structure that would stretch from Canada across Russia to China. But military experts suspect such a new forum could eventually supersede NATO, of which Russia is not a member, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, in which Russia is a member and plays a big role.
Russia, increasingly wealthy, thanks to energy exports, and thus newly confident, is prepared to adopt a more assertive foreign policy stance, President Dmitri Medvedev made clear in his speech to Russian ambassadors this month. He proposed "a modern European architecture that would be designed for 21st-century realities."
