[ NATO SPEECHES ]

Meeting
of the North
Atlantic
Cooperation
Council in
Ministerial
Session

NATO HQ
Brussels
11 Dec 1996


NATO Star

Intervention

of Russian FM Evgenii Primakov
Morning Meeting of the NACC

(Unofficial translation)



It happens that we are meeting here in Brussels several days after the Lisbon Summit of the OSCE. I submit that our meeting here today is connected with the Lisbon Summit by the aspiration to find an optimal expression for the system of security in Europe.

In this connection, I would like first to dwell on several parameters of European security. In the first place, it is indivisible. It would be absolutely unrealistic to divide it into security for NATO countries, security for the OSCE, security for the WEU, security for the CIS.

However, it is not enough just to state the indivisibility of this security. In the sphere of European security, there are already a number of active organizations and institutions. Under these circumstances, it is important to find the answer to the key question - what should be the system of connections and relationships between them. In our view, it is important to move toward the consolidation of all of them into an integrated system, with the coordinating role played by the OSCE, which was once again affirmed at Lisbon.

OSCE is the most universal and multifunctional organization, and therefore it ought to play the key role. In our opinion, one cannot consider NATO as an alternative, as the axis of European security.

But could one call such a posing of the issue an exclusion or lessening of NATO's role? Of course not. Our desire to work and cooperate with NATO, and especially our presence today in Brussels, shows that we give due regard to this organizations and consider it an important fact of life.

However, in doing so, we do not regard this organization in a static way, for in that case there is no basis for cooperation with NATO, which was created in the conditions of the Cold War for confronting the USSR. Therefore the question of the pace and direction of NATO's transformation is extremely important for us, as is the question of what kind of relations are taking shape between the Alliance and other countries. At the Berlin meeting the seeds of transformation were sown. Unfortunately, judging by the document adopted at yesterday's NAC, these seeds have not yet begun to sprout.

Instead there is the impulse to expand NATO. We have spoken out and will continue to speak out against this. The main reason for our negative attitude is that carrying out the expansion, irrespective of whether it targets someone or not, objectively leads to the creation of new dividing lines in Europe. Therefore, we cannot be satisfied with a declaration that the expansion of NATO is not aimed at anyone and that there is no intention behind it of causing estrangement among the states of Europe. Expansion will inevitable lead to the development of such estrangement, if one takes into account the psychological, political, and military aspects connected with it.

Does our negative view of the expansion of NATO contradict the fact that we are not excluding serious discussion of the nature of NATO-Russia relations? No. it does not.

We see a broad spectrum of possible directions for future cooperation between Russia and NATO - regulating crises in Europe, specific peacekeeping operations, the creation of a system of TMD for Europe, cooperation in the area of weapons and (new) technology.

If from NATO's side there is evinced the readiness to seriously discuss the issues of interest to us, we do not exclude the possibility of an outcome further on of a formal agreement concerning the bases of the NATO-Russia relationship.

I will say bluntly that by no means the least of the reasons for our agreeing to consider relations with NATO are the changes in the positions of members-states of this organization which have begun to appear recently.

In this regard I would like to name, first of all, the agreement in principle to speed up renegotiation of modernization of the CFE. This is important for us, mainly for the establishment of national limits, as well as collective ones, and the creation of conditions to prevent proliferation of conventional forces and weapons across international borders.

Among the important positive changes we can cite as well the acceptance at the Lisbon Summit of the central place of OSCE in guarantying European security, and the working out of a Charter of European Security. I would like especially to point out the decision by NATO not to move nuclear weapons eastward, and the proposal of NATO partners concerning the creation of a consultative mechanism for NATO-Russia. We are taking all this into account. Of course, we would have liked for the list to be longer - we are hoping for that. And all this allows us to move toward dialogue with NATO, while in no way changing our negative position towards expansion of the Alliance.


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