Norway: Russia Will Cut NATO Links
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=26897
By Bjoern Amland
The Associated Press
OSLO, Norway - Russia has informed Norway that it plans to suspend all
military ties with NATO, Norway's Defense Ministry said Wednesday, a day
after the military alliance urged Moscow to withdraw its forces from
Georgia.
NATO foreign ministers said Tuesday they would make further ties with
Russia
dependent on Moscow making good on a pledge to pull its troops back to
pre-conflict positions in Georgia. However, they stopped short of calling
an
immediate halt to all cooperation.
The Nordic country's embassy in Moscow received a telephone call from "a
well-placed official in the Russian Ministry of Defense," who said Moscow
plans "to freeze all military cooperation with NATO and allied countries,"
Espen Barth Eide, state secretary with the Norwegian ministry said.
Eide told The Associated Press that the Russian official notified Norway
it
will receive a written note about this soon. He said Norwegian diplomats
in
Moscow would meet Russian officials on Thursday morning to clarify the
implications of the freeze.
"It is our understanding that other NATO countries will receive similar
notes," Eide said. The ministry said the Russian official is known to the
embassy, but Norway declined to provide a name or any further identifying
information.
A Kremlin official declined to comment on the re****t, and the Russian
ambassador to NATO did not reply to messages left on his cell phone. But
the
Interfax news agency, citing what it called a military-diplomatic source
in
Moscow whom it did not identify, re****ted that Russia is reviewing its
2008
military cooperation plans with NATO.
Officials at NATO headquarters in Brussels said Moscow had not informed
the
alliance it was taking such a step.
Wa****ngton described the re****ted move as unfortunate.
"If this indeed is the case, it would be unfortunate. We need to work with
Russia on a range of security issues, but we are obviously very concerned
about Russian behavior in Georgia," U.S. State Department spokesman Robert
Wood said.
Under a 2002 agreement that set up the NATO-Russia Council, the former
Cold
War foes began several cooperation projects. They include occasional
participation of Russian war****ps in NATO counterterrorism patrols in the
Mediterranean Sea, sharing expertise to combat heroin trafficking out of
Afghanistan and developing battlefield anti-missile technology.
Last week, Russia's ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin warned the Western
alliance against cutting off cooperation, saying it would hurt both sides.
The Interfax news agency, citing a military-diplomatic source in Moscow,
re****ted Wednesday that Russia is reviewing its 2008 military cooperation
plans as a result of NATO's decision to suspend meetings of the
NATO-Russia
Council.
Eide said he hoped NATO and Moscow would get back on track with dialogue
and
cooperation but said that Russia would first have to comply with a
cease-fire in Georgia.
"I regret the situation has come to this," he said.
The hostilities between Russia and Georgia began earlier this month when
Georgia cracked down on South Ossetia. The region is internationally
recognized as being within Georgian borders but leans toward Moscow and
regards itself as independent. Russia answered by sending its troops and
tanks across the Georgian border.
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