NATO SAYS RUSSIA-NATO COUNCIL MEETING STILL SET TO GO AHEAD
RIA Novosti
April 20, 2009
BRUSSELS
NATO said on Monday that a NATO-Russia Council meeting scheduled for
May 7 in Brussels was still due to take place.
NATO spokesman James Appathurai told RIA Novosti that the military
alliance was aware of media speculation that Moscow was planning to
pull out of the meeting over NATO military drills due to be held in
Georgia, but that it had heard nothing official from Moscow.
The Cooperative Longbow 09/Cooperative Lancer 09 command-and-staff
exercises will be held in Georgia from May 6 through June 1. They
will not feature light or heavy weaponry.
NATO has said Russia would be welcome to join the military exercises,
but Moscow looks unlikely to take up the offer.
President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday that Russia "will be closely
watching" the drills and would "if necessary, take appropriate
decisions."
"Such decisions are disappointing and do nothing to help restore
full-level contacts between the Russian Federation and NATO," Medvedev
said of NATO’s determination to go ahead with the exercises.
The drills are aimed at improving interoperability between NATO and
partner countries, within the framework of Partnership for Peace,
Mediterranean Dialogue and Istanbul Cooperation Initiative programs.
A total of 19 countries are set to participate in the exercises:
Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia,
the Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Greece, Kazakhstan, Moldova,
Serbia, Spain, Macedonia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Britain,
and the United States.
Russia and Georgia fought a five-day war last August over South
Ossetia. Hostilities began when Georgian forces attacked the republic
in an attempt to bring it back under central control.