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Diplomat: Latvia, Russia agree to continue political dialogue despite difference on Georgia

http://www.kyivpost.com/world/37038

Today, 10:17 | Interfax-Ukraine

Moscow - Latvia does not think that the resumption of NATO-Russia relations means that the August conflict in the South Caucasus has been exhausted, Latvian Foreign Ministry State Secretary Andris Teikmanis said.

"The EU took a clear stance expressing its attitude to both Russia's actions and its recognition of the independence for the two Georgian regions. Nothing has changed," Teikmanis said commenting on the NATO decision to resume relations with Russia in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper that was published on Tuesday.

Latvia supports Ukraine's and Georgia's integration to NATO, he said. "Latvia backs the right of any state to choose alliances it wants to join. And nobody has the right to veto their sovereign decisions," Teikmanis said.

Riga is ready to discuss Moscow's proposals on a new security architecture for Europe, but thinks that the issue should be addressed in the OSCE, he said.

"This [Russian president's initiative on a European security treaty] is an issue that can be discussed. But Russian colleagues have yet to give us something intelligible. Europe is not the most uneasy region. In addition there are formats for resolving problems here. Even if the region is taken in a broader sense - from Vancouver to Vladivostok - there is a format for discussing security issues - the OSCE. At first existing obligations should be fulfilled through the existing system," Teikmanis said.

Russia accepts olive branch to restore relations with NATO

http://www.upi.com/Security_Industry/2009/03/09/Russia_accepts_olive_branch_to_restore_relations_with_NATO/UPI-79871236607204/
By MARTIN SIEFF, UPI Senior News Analyst

Published: March 9, 2009 at 10:00 AM

WASHINGTON, March 9 (UPI) -- Russia is sending signals that its years of anger at NATO and the Bush administration are behind it and it is ready to resume closer cooperation with the U.S.-led alliance.

The Russian Foreign Ministry Thursday gave a warm and appreciative response to a North Atlantic Treaty Organization offer to revive the badly frayed dialogue between Brussels and Moscow, although it cautioned that any revival of the Russia-NATO Council could only be arranged through careful coordinated action by both sides, RIA Novosti reported.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer issued the offer to the Kremlin earlier Thursday, and Moscow's quick response was another signal that it is ready to take up the suggestion U.S. Vice President Joe Biden offered at the 45th annual Munich Conference on Security Policy last month to "press the reset button" on Russia's strategic relations with the West.

The NATO allies withdrew from the joint council in September in protest against the Russian military invasion of the former Soviet republic of Georgia in the Caucasus. The Bush administration had been trying to bring Georgia into NATO, but this had been opposed by many of the alliance's European member states.

However, Russia has repeatedly signaled its willingness to seek warmer relations, and possibly even a new strategic arms reduction treaty to replace the current START-1, since U.S. President Barack Obama took office six weeks ago. And Russian officials were quick to welcome the latest olive branch from NATO.

"This decision is a step in the right direction, and we note with satisfaction that common sense has prevailed at NATO," Foreign Ministry spokesman Igor Lyakin-Frolov told RIA Novosti.

In general, the Western European major nations in NATO share the new Obama administration's eagerness to thaw relations with Russia. NATO Secretary-General Scheffer, who is Dutch, also gave an encouraging response to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's proposal that the two sides should hold talks on creating a new European security system for the 21st century.

Russia has repeatedly maintained that the expansion of NATO across Central Europe and into Eastern Europe since the disintegration of the Soviet Union has made the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty obsolete.

On Wednesday Russian Ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin sent another encouraging message. RIA Novosti quoted him as saying the Russia-NATO Council could be back in business before the end of March. Rogozin also stated that the "period of estrangement" between Moscow and the Western alliance was already "largely behind us."

Russia is strengthening its forces in the south of the country, including its powerful Black Sea Fleet, Deputy Defense Minister Gen. Vladimir Popovkin announced Thursday.

Relations between Russia, the United States and NATO were tense for several months following the Russian invasion and occupation of one-third of the former Soviet republic of Georgia in the Caucasus last August.

Tensions have eased since President Barack Obama won the U.S. election on Nov. 4, but the powerful Russian Black Sea Fleet continues to closely monitor NATO warships and Western cargo ships bringing aid to Georgia.

According to a RIA Novosti report Thursday, Popovkin stated that the Russian Defense Ministry had carefully studied "the outcome of the South Ossetian conflict" and had concluded that it needs to boost military and naval forces in the region. Russia is also locked in a series of disputes with neighboring Ukraine, the most populous of the former Soviet republics, apart from Russia.

Accordingly, Popovkin announced that Russian ground forces in the South henceforth would be equipped with new multiple rocket launching systems and more effective reconnaissance tools.

Since the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942, Russia's multiple rocket launching systems have been among the most powerful, advanced and effective heavy artillery in the world. The Russian armed forces are also following the U.S. lead by investing heavily in unmanned aerial surveillance aircraft to target their artillery and tactical short-range rockets more effectively.

RIA Novosti quoted Popovkin as saying that other measures to strengthen military forces in southern Russia would include upgrading Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters and Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot ground attack planes, as well as Mi-28H Night Hunger helicopter gunships. The forces also would be supplied with new aircraft such as the Su-27SM, the Sukhoi Su-30MK-2 and combat helicopters such as the Kamov Ka-52, the Mi-28N, the Mi-24M and the Mi-8MTB5, he said.

Air Defense Forces in the region are to be provided with modern Pantsir-S surface-to-air missile systems, the general said.

The Black Sea Fleet will be expanded by the addition of new Lada Project 677 diesel-electric submarines, modernized versions of the Varshavyanka-class submarine, and Bal-U mobile coastal missile systems, RIA Novosti said.

Russia denied claims in February that the Black Sea Fleet had been mobilized and was prepared for naval operations. The fleet still operates out of several bases in the Crimea, which is part of Ukraine, under a 1997 arrangement whereby Ukraine leased the bases to Russia for 20 years until 2017.

However, pro-Western Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said last summer he was not prepared to renew that agreement beyond 2017 and said he wanted Russia to get ready to abandon its bases.

In response, the Russian media have carried reports, monitored in these columns, that Russia might respond to the loss of Sevastopol and other Crimean bases by establishing permanent bases in such friendly countries as Yemen, Syria and Libya instead.