BRUSSELS – NATO and Russia discussed the fight against gangs operating off Somalia and the war in Afghanistan on Wednesday in the latest talks intended to improve relations between the former Cold War foes.
Ambassadors from the two sides reached no major agreements at a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council, in which they discuss security issues and joint projects, but discussed creating joint sea patrols in the Gulf of Aden and training crews together.
“There was a shared desire to strengthen the NATO-Russia Council by focusing on practical issues,†NATO spokesman James Appathurai said.
Russia and NATO have been gradually warming ties that were frozen after Russia’s brief war last August in Georgia, a former Soviet republic that now wants to join the Western military alliance, and agreed last month to resume military cooperation.
Russian ambassador Dmitry Rogozin said Moscow hoped an international criminal court would be set up to try members of the Somali gangs that have hijacked commercial ships and demanded money to release vessels and crew.
Appathurai said the two sides discussed the transport of military supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan through Russia and drug smuggling from Afghanistan to Central Asia.
The Russian delegation presented Russia’s new national security strategy and said it hoped to exchange views on it with NATO, which is drawing up its own new strategic concept.
Source: Reuters
23 July 2009
