Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire: Sergey Lavrov

Showing posts with label Sergey Lavrov. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

NATO eyes 'fresh start' with Russia

China, India, Russia vow to deepen cooperationBeijing (AFP) Nov 15, 2010 - The foreign ministers of developing giants China, India and Russia pledged on Monday to step up cooperation in trade, energy and geopolitical affairs including climate change. The pledges were made in a joint communique after two days of meetings in the central Chinese city of Wuhan by Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and his Russian and Indian counterparts Sergei Lavrov and S.M. Krishna. The communique also said China, India and Russia had deepened cooperation on international and regional issues during the talks, but stressed that such cooperation would not target "any other country". The foreign ministers said they supported a "multi-polar, equitable and democratic world order" and expressed their commitment to the use of "multilateral instruments" for finding solutions to global and regional issues.

China and Russia are members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a grouping of mostly central Asian states that many view as a bid by China and Russia to counter global US influence. India is an observer country in the body. They also pledged to further explore potential cooperation in energy, high-tech sectors, innovation, aerospace, cultural exchanges and disaster relief, the communique said, without providing details. Noting that the global recovery remained "uneven, fragile and unbalanced", the three ministers called for worldwide coordinated efforts to promote "strong, sustainable and balanced" growth and oppose "all forms of protectionism". Russia's entry to the World Trade Organisation also received backing at the foreign ministers' meeting from China and India, already members of the global trade body. WTO chief Pascal Lamy said last month that Russia's 17-year membership bid was accelerating after significant progress in recent weeks.

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/NATO_eyes_fresh_start_with_Russia_999.html Brussels (AFP) Nov 15, 2010 NATO will launch a "fresh start" with Russia this week with a deal to step up collaboration on Afghanistan and efforts to end suspicion over a European missile shield, the alliance's chief said Monday. NATO leaders meeting in Lisbon on Friday and Saturday are expected to endorse a plan to mount a missile shield that will defend Europe from ballistic missiles and invite Russia to join the system.
At a separate summit in the Portuguese capital, NATO and Russia are also expected to reach an agreement on their first ever joint review of common security threats and deepen their cooperation on Afghanistan.
"I think we are witnessing a fresh start in the relationship between NATO and Russia and maybe I could go further and say a fresh start in the relationship between Russia and the West," Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a news conference.
"I think this is of huge strategic importance," he said.
The Western military alliance has made intense efforts to convince Russia that the system was not aimed against the former Soviet power but rather to counter threats from other countries armed with ballistic missiles.
Russia was deeply concerned about a previous US plan to install anti-missile systems in eastern Europe, but NATO wants to ease Russian concerns by inviting Moscow to join a new project.
"We will decide at the NATO-Russia summit in Lisbon to initiate a joint analysis as to how missile defence cooperation could be implemented," Rasmussen said.
"Cooperation would clearly demonstrate that this system is not directed against Russia," he said.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Russia says open to missile defence cooperation with NATO

Russia is open to cooperation with NATO on missile defence but the partnership must be an equal one, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.
"We proceed from the fact that if this is equal cooperation, beginning with joint analysis, joint estimates of those risks that exist in the sphere of missile proliferation then such cooperation is quite possible," Lavrov told reporters at the G20 summit in Seoul on Friday.
"Strategic partnership should be built on an equal basis."
His comments came just before a scheduled weekend meeting between US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Yokohama, and ahead of the NATO summit in Lisbon which the Kremlin chief agreed to attend.
NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen travelled to Moscow for talks with Medvedev earlier this month.
"The Russian president said he will be ready to formulate our additional proposals... in relation to the creation of an anti-missile pool of interested states," Lavrov said, referring to Russia, the United States and European countries.
Moscow's Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said last month his country was open to talks on NATO's planned European missile shield but wants to play an equal role in developing it.
"The most important thing for us is firstly to define what are the real threats to Europe, and secondly is to see Russia put on an equal footing as a participant," Serdyukov said in an interview with German weekly Der Spiegel.
"It is only thus can an anti-missile defence system be put in place which satisfies everyone."
Previous US plans to deploy an anti-missile system in former Soviet satellite states in eastern Europe angered the Kremlin. NATO now hopes to ease these doubts by including Moscow in the planning of a broader system.
Lavrov said a joint anti-missile shield would be possible "with the existence of goodwill, readiness to cooperate on an equal footing, with mutual respect, taking into account each others' interests".
"It will not be directed against any third countries but it will highlight that Russia and NATO have common approaches, that we have common risks

Thursday, November 4, 2010

NATO, Russia must 'bury ghosts' at landmark summit:

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/NATO_Russia_must_bury_ghosts_at_landmark_summit_chief_999.html Moscow (AFP) Nov 3, 2010 NATO's chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen Wednesday called on the alliance and Russia to "bury the ghosts" of past Cold War enmity at an upcoming summit to be attended by President Dmitry Medvedev. The Russian president is to attend NATO's Lisbon summit on November 19, marking a major thawing in relations after the crisis caused by the war between Russia and the pro-Western ex-Soviet state of Georgia in 2008.
"I think that the summit will send a clear message to the Russian people. NATO does not see Russia as an enemy. We see Russia as a partner of strategic importance," Rasmussen said on a visit to Moscow.
The "summit is a real chance to turn the page once and for all to bury the ghosts of the past," the secretary general added, speaking after talks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
In a bid to take relations to a new level, NATO has invited Moscow to join its proposed new missile defence shield, but Moscow has still voiced suspicions over its purpose, despite alliance assurances that it was not aimed at Russia.
"NATO is trying to develop a NATO-based territorial missile defence system and we would very much like to cooperate with Russia in that respect," Rasmussen said.
Medvedev stressed last month Moscow needed to hear more about the project and Rasmussen insisted the alliance was in no way pressuring its former Cold War-era foe.
"We do not want to impose a specific missile defence architecture on Russia," he said.
"Today, I suggested a procedure, a way forward and I hope we can agree it at the summit."
Lavrov said that Russia wanted to see "responsible, far-sighted decisions" being taken at the summit.
He said there should now be a switch "from the stage of overcoming the consequences of the Cold War to building a true strategic partnership."
Previous US plans to deploy an anti-missile system in former Soviet satellite states in eastern Europe angered the Kremlin, despite Western assurances they were aimed at states like Iran.
Medvedev hailed an improvement in ties, saying after his talks with Rasmussen that "overall, relations between Russia and NATO have become more productive and intensive."

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

U.S. Wants Missile Defense Collaboration With Russia, Diplomat Says -- Global Security Newswire

The Growing NATO - Russian Alliance

Photo: NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen (left) talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about renewed cooperation between Russia and NATO. Photo from Radio Free Europe.

U.S. Wants Missile Defense Collaboration With Russia, Diplomat Says -- Global Security Newswire

A senior U.S. diplomat today reaffirmed the Obama administration's desire to collaborate with Russia in developing antimissile systems in Europe, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Oct. 25).

"It's absolutely clear we want to do this cooperatively with Russia," Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon said in Berlin. "Russia faces the same potential threat as Europe," he added.

Read more ....

More News On U.S./NATO - Russian Relations

NATO's Rasmussen to Moscow for Afghan, missile talks -- Reuters
NATO Chief Sees 'New Start' With Russia -- Radio Free Europe
Report: Russia seeks to limit new NATO members -- AP
Russia wants cap on NATO troops: report -- AFP
Russia seeks restrictions on NATO military contingents - paper -- RIA Novosti
Russia-NATO relations depend on alliance's strategic concept - Lavrov -- RIA Novosti
Russia's approach to NATO depends on its strategy: Lavrov -- Xinhuanet
Moscow Wants to 'Participate as an Equal Partner': SPIEGEL Interview With Russia's Defense Minister -- Spiegel Online
Will the U.S. Lose Europe to Russia? -- John Vinocur, New York Times

Monday, September 20, 2010

Russia, US Request IAEA to Verify Weapons-Grade Plutonium’s Disposition

from IAEA Top News RSS Feed

On 16 September 2010, the IAEA´s Director General Yukiya Amano received a jointly signed letter from the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, and the U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, requesting that the IAEA undertake “an important verification role under the amended Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the United States of America Concerning the Management and Disposition of Plutonium Designated as No Longer Required for Defense Purposes and Related Cooperation”.