Russia sets condition for normalizing NATO ties

press tv
Sat, 13 Dec 2008 08:30:38 GMT

The Russian foreign minister says a review of the Caucasus conflict
will be necessary for the normalization of Russia-NATO relations.

"Before us lies an extremely difficult process of normalization, in
which it will be necessary to return to a discussion of the Caucasus
crisis, which our partners declined to have in August," Sergei Lavrov
said in an interview with the Interfax news agency published on
Saturday.

NATO said in early December the alliance would resume a ‘conditional
and graduated’ dialogue with Russia. The two sides suspended talks
following the August military conflict between Moscow and Tbilisi.

An EU-brokered peace deal ended the five-day war, which began when
Georgian forces attacked South Ossetia to bring it back under Georgia’s
control. This prompted Russia to send its troops to South Ossetia,
where most of the residents hold Russian citizenship.

Lavrov said the conflict resulted in ‘the strengthening of the EU’s
role and the weakening of NATO-centrism’.

"It has become clear that NATO cannot aspire to have a solid role in
Europe without productive contacts with Russia…. It seems that in the
North Atlantic alliance they are beginning to understand this," he
added.

Georgia, along with Ukraine, has sought to join NATO, but the alliance
is deeply divided on the subject.

Moscow strongly opposes Tbilisi and Kiev’s ambitions to join NATO, and
some NATO members, such as France, Germany and Italy, fear their entry
would provoke Russia, a key energy supplier.