Cold War Foes Turn 'Partners'

28/05/2002| IslamWeb

HIGHLIGHTS: New Russia-NATO Council of 2o Formed||Russia's Pro-Western Foreign Policy Does Not Give NATO Carte Blanche to Act Unilaterally, Putin|| Risks of Confrontation Still Lay Ahead Specially Over Possible U.S-Led Attack on Iraq|| NATO and Russian leaders forgot Cold War enmity Tuesday and crowned the transformation in relations since Sept. 11 with a new council for security.

"Two former foes are now joined as partners, overcoming 50 years of division in a decade of insecurity," President Bush told a summit of the Western defense alliance and its once-defining enemy. (Read photo caption)

The new NATO-Russia Council, which gives Moscow an equal voice on issues from terrorism to arms control, was also a diplomatic coup for Putin, who has reached out

RULE OF LAW

However, speaking to reporters in Rome, Russian leader Vladimir Putin signaled that his pro-Western foreign policy did not give the alliance carte blanche for military action.

"It's absolutely fundamentally important to understand that this cooperation at 20 (Council of 20) must repose on the stable foundations of international law, the U.N. charter, the Helsinki Final Act and the European security charter."

Russia traditionally maintains that force can be used only to intervene in world affairs with the explicit approval of the U.N. Security Council, where it has the right of veto.

Putin also signaled that Russia would not abandon security bodies it has set up with 12 former Soviet states -- collectively known as the Commonwealth of Independent States -- and that NATO should also work with Asian regional bodies.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a champion of the new council from the beginning, said a mindset change would have to go hand-in-hand with institutional change for it to work.

SECURITY SHIELD

Italy clamped a security shield on the sprawling Pratica di Mare military airbase south of Rome, fearing militants might target the first gathering of NATO leaders since Sept. 11.

Hundreds of troops guarded the perimeter fence. Helicopters buzzed overhead. Fighter jets patrolled the brilliant blue skies. Out at sea, a naval vessel imposed a 15-km (nine-mile) exclusion zone.

All Italian airlines and some foreign carriers suspended Rome operations to guard against possible hijackings.

COUNCIL OF 20

NATO Secretary General George Robertson hailed the pact that joins nations from "Vancouver to Vladivostok" as a force to tackle the common enemy of global terrorism.

The Council of 20 will give Russia an equal voice, something it never had in the hapless "19-plus-one" Permanent Joint Council (PJC) which was established in 1997 partly to console Moscow for NATO's first eastward enlargement.

But either side will be able to take back any security issue from the new forum if there is no consensus. Issues removed from the forum by the Western members could still be debated among the 19 NATO allies, thus barring Russia from any veto over independent action on their part.

Analysts said that despite the mood of amity, risks of confrontation still lay ahead, not least from a possible U.S.-led attack on Iraq.

In a discordant reminder of the suspicions lingering among Putin's political and military elite, Moscow reiterated on the eve of the summit its opposition to NATO's plan for further expansion behind the old Iron Curtain.

PHOTO CAPTION

Russian President Vladimir Putin walks past a mural of NATO's country flags on his arrival at Pratica di Mare military airport May 28,2002 for the NATO-Russia summit. The summit which is attended by U.S President George W Bush, Russian President Putin and leaders from the 19 NATO nations, will formally endorse a Russia-NATO cooperation agreement that has been hailed as the end of the Cold War. Photo by Vincenzo Pinto/Reuters