The NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen is in Moscow on a visit. Today he is scheduled to have talks with the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the speaker of the upper house of the Russian Parliament, - the Council of the Federation, Sergei Mironov. Mr. Rasmussen is also due to meet the State Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev and to address the students of the Foreign Ministry's MGIMO University.
The packed programme is indicative of important change in Russia-NATO relations recently, specifically in the wake of last year's developments in the Caucasus. Following the Alliance-initiated provisional chill in bilateral relations we are now witnessing a clear turn to galvanizing and to the continuation of dialogue. Whether NATO is prepared to recognize it or not, the reason for that change is Russia's growing international authority both with regard to dealing with regional and global problems. It is for some reason that the NATO Secretary-General will discuss in Moscow the situation in Iran and Afghanistan, where the Alliance is clearly unable to achieve positive results without cooperation with Russia, but also more general questions, like a treaty on European security, of which the principles have been formulated by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. This is what the Russian ambassador at NATO Dmitry Rogozin said in this context in his recent interview with the Voice of Russia.
We suggest signing a certain body of rules, Dmitry Rogozin says, whereby the countries will deal with one another respectfully. We suggest setting down the principle of a non-settlement of political problems through the use of military force or a threat to use such force. We suggest setting down an opportunity for involvement in a new Euroepan security system, under which all countries would be seen as equals and an attack against any one country would be seen as an attack on Europe in general.
But then, it is not only in Europe, but also in Asia and other regions posing the main challenges in the 21st century that Russia's role is increasingly frequently seen as universal. In other words, it is growing increasingly obvious both inside the North Atlantic Alliance and elsewhere that major problems are impossible to be effectively dealt with, without Moscow, says Dmitry Rogozin, and elaborates.
This holds, Dmitry Rogozin says, both for fighting international terrorism and the development of the Arctic resources; for preventing cataclysms, related to the countries' industrial infrastructure; for fighting piracy, neutralizing the so-called heroin aggression and so on and so forth.
Indeed, Russia and NATO have many things to discuss and have lots of areas to interact in. The arrival of NATO's Secretary-General in Moscow is another proof of the need for and importance of the continuation of the dialogue.
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