NATO Deal Paves Way For Russian Partnership

BRUSSELS -- NATO and Russia agreed Tuesday to wide-ranging cooperation in European security issues, paving the way for Moscow to sign the Partnership for Peace and putting an end to recent disputes between the two sides. The deal, following bitter complaints from Moscow that NATO was ignoring its big-power status, allows Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev to sign the partnership scheme on closer military links with NATO on Wednesday. A joint declaration to be published Wednesday sets out the principles of cooperation. It includes NATO recognition of Russia's importance and says the alliance will consult with Moscow on European security affairs. Russia commits itself to active participation in the partnership scheme and will have no veto over alliance decisions, diplomats said. "We have reached agreement," NATO Assistant Secretary General Gephardt von Moltke said after talks with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vitaly Churkin. "I think we have found a good basis for future cooperation." "Now we have a clear understanding of the way our relationship is going to develop in the years to come," said Churkin, after three rounds of talks at NATO headquarters. Moscow, which postponed signing the Partnership for Peace in April, has been pressing for special political ties with NATO beyond the partnership to reflect its status. Cooperation between the two sides is vital to maintaining stability in post-Cold War Europe. Russia has a seat on the UN Security Council and the world's largest nuclear arsenal. NATO is the world's only functioning military alliance. Diplomats said the alliance, which has set out clear limits for any future relationship with Moscow, had managed to retain most of what it wanted in the joint declaration. Moscow had originally asked for formal consultations with the alliance on security issues but NATO insisted that it cannot give Russia influence over decisions or any right to call talks. The relationship will be developed on an informal basis without any special treaty and NATO will decide the subject and timing of any consultations with Moscow. Diplomats said Russia would now have a document that it could use to convince hardliners in the parliament and military that the West was taking it seriously. At the same time, the alliance has made no real concessions to Russian demands and can reassure Eastern European states, worried that a special relationship between NATO and Moscow could leave them out in the cold. Many of Moscow's former satellites, including Poland and Hungary, want to join NATO soon, something Moscow opposes. Kozyrev will also meet U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher in Brussels on Wednesday. Russia will be the 21st country to sign the partnership, which is on offer to all former Soviet bloc states and some other European nations outside NATO. The progress in relations between NATO and Russia has surprised many diplomats at alliance headquarters, given recent disputes over Western air strikes in Bosnia, arms control and the future expansion of NATO membership to Eastern Europe. At a meeting of foreign ministers from NATO and former Soviet bloc states in Istanbul earlier this month, those differences burst into the open and there was a major row.