The offer came as the military alliance looks for collaboration with Moscow in missile defense, Iran's nuclear program and other security issues. The Kremlin as of yesterday had not said whether it would send delegates to the event.
Top diplomats from NATO states are scheduled to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov next week during the U.N. General Assembly session in New York. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen expressed hope that the talks would "put some new energy" into the alliance's cooperation with Moscow on the war in Afghanistan and "when it comes to fighting terrorism and proliferation."
The November summit should reaffirm NATO's desire to work with Russia on antimissile activities, according to Rasmussen. He hopes to have the alliance establish a collective system that would protect its member states from Iranian missile strikes.
"We need an effective missile defense and I hope that can be agreed," Rasmussen said (David Brunnstrom, Reuters/Yahoo!News, Sept. 15).
Russia has been wary of U.S. and NATO efforts to establish missile defenses in Europe (see GSN, Sept. 15). It yesterday continued to voice skepticism about the alliance plan, Interfax reported.
"It is not the first time that we hear more or less detailed invitations from the secretary general to take part in creating European missile defense," the Kremlin's envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, said in response to Rasmussen's statement.
"The proposals in themselves are interesting and indicate that the secretary general has the will to agree with Russia on the issue. But the problem is different -- so far we do not understand well enough what we are being invited to," he said.
"NATO itself has not come up with the outline of what they are inviting us to," according to Rogozin. "This means that so far there is political willingness to involve Russia's capabilities, including geographical, technological and political. But there has been nothing concrete," he said.
At this point "it is hard to tell what Europe will be taking part in and whether the Russian Federation will take part in this American-European missile defense project," Rogozin said (Interfax, Sept. 15).
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