Medvedev warns of termination of ties with NATO

Russia Today, August 26, 2008, 0:32

Russia ready to ditch NATO - Medvedev

President Medvedev says Russia is ready to break off relations with NATO if necessary. His comments came after a meeting with Russia's ambassador to the alliance, Dmitry Rogozin. NATO has been highly critical of Russia’s handling of the conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia.
Speaking after a meeting with Rogozin in Sochi, Medvedev said there could be no confusion about NATO’s plans. He also said that Russia could see through “the illusion of partnership”.

”When they are building up their military forces, surrounding us with bases and drawing into the alliance more and more countries - convincing us that everything is ok... Of course we don't like it,” President Medvedev said on Monday.

NATO vessels are in the Black Sea to provide humanitarian aid for Georgia and give a helping hand. Russian views their presence with suspicion.

NATO had warned that relations with Russia would not improve until it pulled all its troops out of Georgia.

The future of joint Russia-NATO programmes remains unclear. One of them involves the delivery of humanitarian aid through Russia to Afghanistan.

”NATO is more interested in this partnership then we are. Even if it will mean the end of our cooperation, it’s nothing to us,” Medvedev said.

At the last meeting of NATO foreign ministers, the alliance was looking for ways to punish Russia.

In another development, Washington and Warsaw sealed a deal on the deployment of interceptors in Poland as a part of the US missile defense project. The talks ended years of negotiations, with Washington agreeing to all Poland’s conditions.

Western countries could bar Russia’s entry to the World Trade Organisation. Russia has been seeking to join the WTO for more than 10 years, but it’s not desperate for entry and is prepared to halt talks.

”Our economy, I mean some of its industries, including agriculture, bears a rather heavy load. It turns out we neither see nor feel any pluses from this membership of the WTO, if there are any at all, but we do bear a load,” Prime Minister Putin said.

Medvedev warns of termination of ties with NATO

www.chinaview.cn 2008-08-25 20:03:30

MOSCOW, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) --

President Dmitry Medvedev has warned that Russia could sever all ties with NATO if necessary, Russian news agencies reported Monday.

"Cooperation is in the interests of NATO, not Russia," Medvedev said in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi during a meeting on Monday with Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's envoy to the alliance.

If NATO is not willing to cooperate with Moscow, "we will take any decision, up to terminating relations entirely," he was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying.

The Russian president said his country "has been trying to develop relations with the alliance for a rather long time."

"Yet we would like to have a full-scale partnership rather than live a life of illusion amid the creation of new (military) bases around us and the involvement of new countries in NATO," the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

Rogozin, for his part, said NATO has taken up a policy of double standards and "has deviated from the spirit of partnership."

Moscow recalled Rogozin from Brussels "for consultations" after NATO froze contacts through the Russia-NATO Council in an emergency NATO foreign ministers' meeting last week.

The Russian Defense Ministry later said it was suspending all cooperation with the military alliance.

Georgia launched attacks against South Ossetia in an attempt to regain control of the breakaway region bordering Russia. Moscow responded by sending in troops, which drove Georgian forces out of the region and took over parts of Georgian territory.

Russia declared a halt to its military offensive in Georgia on Aug. 12 and has now withdrawn most of its troops from there, but peacekeeping checkpoints are still in place "to deter further bloodshed".

Both houses of Russia's parliament on Monday approved appeals to the president to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the two breakaway regions of Georgia.

Medvedev has not yet reacted to the requests, which are likely to further strain Russia's ties with the West.

Editor: Bi Mingxin

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