Putin Softens Stance on NATO

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- President Vladimir Putin signaled a more flexible approach to NATO enlargement Wednesday and agreed to closer security cooperation with the European Union after last month's attacks on the United States.

The conciliatory remarks by Putin, in Brussels for a Russia-EU summit, about the old Cold War foe would have been inconceivable just a few months ago.

He repeated Moscow's line that NATO has no need to enlarge because it no longer faces a hostile Soviet Union, but he said this view could change if the alliance itself adapted to a changing security environment.

Russia agreed to hold monthly meetings on foreign and defense policy with the EU and also backed a NATO proposal to set up a new body to oversee what Putin called a "widening and deepening" of relations between Moscow and the alliance.

"As for NATO expansion, one can take another, an entirely new look at this ... if NATO takes on a different shade and is becoming a political organization," Putin told a joint news conference with senior EU officials.

Russia has until now fiercely opposed the inclusion of the three Baltic states in the 19-nation Western alliance when NATO considers its next wave of enlargement in 2002.

"Of course we would reconsider our position with regard to such expansion if we were to feel involved in such processes," Putin said.

"They keep saying that NATO is becoming more political than military. We are looking at this [and] watching this process. If this is to be so, it would change things considerably," he said.

Putin's change of tone on NATO was remarkable. Moscow was fiercely critical of NATO's air strikes against Yugoslavia in 1999 and it has taken two years for relations to normalize.

Quizzed again on NATO enlargement after talks with NATO Secretary-General George Robertson, Putin said: "If NATO did expand, whose security would be enhanced by that move?"

But he added it was important for both Russia and NATO to abandon the "logic" of confrontation and to build closer ties.

"We believe things are moving toward a qualitative change in the relationship," Putin said.

Initial reaction to Putin's comments in the Baltic states was cautious.

"We have been noting [Putin's] statements but it remains to be seen if Russia is committed to deeper involvement with NATO and the EU," said senior Latvian diplomat Andrejs Pildegovics.

NATO's Robertson made clear that Moscow could not exercise a veto over which countries joined the alliance.

But he also praised Putin's support for the new U.S.-led coalition against terrorism and said Russia and NATO were entering "a new era of substantial and practical cooperation."

In Moscow, a U.S. Embassy official said the United States had supplied Russia with proof that Osama bin Laden was involved in last month's attacks.

In a joint statement, Russia and the EU reaffirmed full support for the United States in bringing to justice the perpetrators, believed to be hiding in Afghanistan.

The statement pledged increased intelligence sharing on money laundering, arms smuggling and biological, nuclear and chemical weapons.

Putin has said he does not doubt the involvement of bin Laden, whom he has in the past accused of supporting Islamist rebels fighting Russian rule in Chechnya.

"For us there are obvious links between international terrorism and those who have taken up arms to resolve whatever problems there might be in the Northern Caucasus, above all in Chechnya," he told reporters.

To the dismay of human rights groups, EU diplomats have signaled that they will soften their criticism of Russia's actions in Chechnya in the interests of building and maintaining a broad coalition against international terrorism.

The language of the joint statement was circumspect.

"Following an exchange of views, the European Union expressed its support for the efforts of the Russian authorities to find a political resolution [in Chechnya]," it said.

It also committed the two sides to respect democratic values, including media freedom -- a sensitive subject in Russia where Putin's critics accuse him of trying to stifle dissent.

Russia and the EU agreed to set up a high-level working group to draw up a blueprint by October 2003 for creating a "common European economic space" to promote commerce.

The European Union said it and the United States would work to give fresh impetus to Moscow's eight-year-old bid to join the World Trade Organization. (Story, Page 5.)

n?British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office refused to comment Wednesday on his travel plans, though Russian and Pakistani officials announced that he was expected in their capitals, The Associated Press reported.

Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told reporters in Brussels that Blair would arrive in Moscow on Thursday evening for an unofficial working visit, Russian news agencies reported.