Russia says it’s ready to fully restore cooperation with NATO

September 21st, 2009 Russia: Better NATO ties largely up to allianceMOSCOW — Russia on Monday welcomed the new NATO chief's call for better ties, but said it's largely up to the alliance to make it happen. Moscow wants NATO to listen to its concerns and hold serious discussions on the Kremlin's proposal for an overarching new European security treaty, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said.

August 11th, 2009 NATO chief calls for closer ties with RussiaBRUSSELS — NATO's new Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called Tuesday for a closer strategic partnership with Russia to tackle common security challenges. During a meeting with Russia's envoy to the alliance, Fogh Rasmussen said the NATO-Russia Council — a panel formed in 2004 to improve ties between the Cold War rivals — should become a forum for cooperation on strategic issues, deputy spokeswoman Carmen Romero said.

August 11th, 2009 NATO chief calls for closer ties with RussiaBRUSSELS — NATO's new Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called Tuesday for a closer strategic partnership with Russia to tackle common security challenges. During a meeting with Russia's envoy to the alliance, Fogh Rasmussen said the NATO-Russia Council — a panel formed in 2004 to improve ties between the Cold War rivals — should become a forum for cooperation on strategic issues, deputy spokeswoman Carmen Romero said.

July 29th, 2009 Obama administration says Russia could join NATOWASHINGTON — The Obama administration is not ruling out the possibility of Russian membership in NATO. Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon told U.S.

July 26th, 2009 Medvedev chides NATO over Georgia, UkraineMOSCOW — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Sunday NATO is beginning to realize that Georgia and Ukraine should not be "dragged" into the alliance. "The understanding that these respected states are not ready to make this sort of decision and that the alliance is not ready to absorb them is gradually understood," Medvedev said in remarks televised by NTV television.

July 22nd, 2009 NATO, Russia consider ways to boost cooperationBRUSSELS — Diplomats from NATO and Russia met on Wednesday to discuss ways of cooperating in the battle against pirates off Somalia and supplying alliance forces fighting in Afghanistan. Russian ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said Russia wanted to set up an international criminal court to try captured Somali pirates, rather than prosecuting them in local courts in countries such as Kenya.

May 5th, 2009 Lavrov pulls out of Russia-NATO meetingMOSCOW — Russia's foreign minister has pulled out of a NATO-Russia Council meeting planned for Brussels this month to protest the alliance's upcoming military exercises in Georgia and the expulsion of two Russian diplomats from its headquarters, a senior diplomat said Tuesday. Sergey Lavrov's decision to withdraw from the May 19 meeting was based on concerns about the exercises that start Wednesday and over the expulsions last week, which were in apparent retaliation for a spy case dating back to February, Russia's NATO envoy Dmitry Rogozin said in televised comments.

April 17th, 2009 MOSCOW - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Friday that NATO's decision to hold military exercises in Georgia next month threatens to complicate ties with Russia. The military exercises will be held from May 6 to June 1, and will not include light or heavy weaponry.

April 5th, 2009 STRASBOURG - The leaders of NATO member states have agreed to relaunch talks with Russia in the framework of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC), suspended by the alliance unilaterally after the Russia-Georgia military conflict. 'Despite our current disagreements, Russia is of particular importance to us as a partner and neighbor,' they said in a declaration issued at a two-day summit marking the 60th anniversary of the bloc here Saturday.

April 1st, 2009 BRUSSELS - NATO Wednesday welcomed a joint declaration by US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on nuclear arms control and on further cooperation in Afghanistan. 'Obviously NATO-Russia relations are heavily influenced by bilateral relations between the United States and Russia,' said NATO spokesman James Appathurai in Brussels.

March 17th, 2009 KABUL - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday that his country was allowing cargo supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan through its territory to cooperate with the stabilisation of the war-torn country. 'Terrorism and drug trafficking are the main obstacles before the peace and stability in Afghanistan,' Lavrov told reporters through an interpreter in a press conference in Kabul.

February 13th, 2009 MOSCOW - The US will send a consignment of non-military supplies to Afghanistan via Russian territory in the next few days, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said. The announcement comes a little more than a week after Washington requested Moscow's permission to send several containers of non-military cargoes to Afghanistan via Russia.

January 29th, 2009 BRUSSELS - NATO may have to play a bigger role in the Arctic as the melting of the ice cap would create security and environment challenges, a top official said. NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a seminar in Reykjavik, Iceland that the increased shipping activity in the Arctic as a result of the melting of the ice cap may lead to more accidents requiring search and rescue missions.

January 23rd, 2009 TASHKENT - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said that Moscow is ready to cooperate with NATO on the Afghan issue, even as he has welcomed US President Barack Obama's plans to review US policy in the war-ravaged nation. 'We hope the new US administration will have greater success than the previous one in resolving the Afghanistan issue,' Medvedev said Friday on the second day of his two-day visit to Uzbekistan.

January 23rd, 2009 MOSCOW - Russia will cooperate with US President Barack Obama on Afghanistan and allow US and NATO forces safe passage through its southern territory to support operations against terrorism, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Friday. 'We are ready for full-fledged cooperation with all countries on the issue of assuring security in Afghanistan, including the United States,' Medvedev said on an official visit to Uzbekistan, a central Asian nation which shares a border with Afghanistan.