NATO invites Putin to summit in April
NATO has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to a NATO-Russia summit on the margins of a summit of NATO leaders in Bucharest on April 2-4, alliance spokesman James Appathurai said Wednesday.
"It will help to clear the air on issues where we disagree," he told reporters, at a time of deep tensions between Moscow and the military alliance.
He said that NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who presides over the NATO-Russia Council, "proposed that it be held in Bucharest at the level of heads of state and government."
Putin helped launch the first summit at this level in 2002, but he has not participated in the forum since.
Russia has suspended a key Cold War-era arms pact, in protest against the refusal of NATO nations to ratify it. US missile defence plans endorsed by the alliance are also complicating ties as are differences over Kosovo.
When the summit takes place Putin will be at the end of his last mandate. His preferred successor, Dmitri Medvedev, is expected to be elected in presidential polls on March 2, with power likely to be handed over early in May.
Russia has acknowledged that the invitation was received, but no answer has come back, Appathurai said.
Putin had been due to attend the last NATO summit, in Latvia in November 2006, to celebrate former French president Jacques Chirac`s birthday, but his trip was cancelled at the last minute for unexplained "organisational reasons".
The NATO-Russia Council regroups the 26 NATO allies with their Russian counterparts. It meets regularly at ambassador level at NATO headquarters in Brussels. Defence and foreign ministers hold talks roughly every six months.
On January 10, Scheffer underlined that it was vital for the two to continue to meet, despite their differences.
"Russia is a partner and an important one. We have no alternative, neither Russia nor NATO, but to engage. Engagement is the key word in the NATO-Russia relationship," he said.
Those remarks came after Russia named a firebrand nationalist as its NATO ambassador.
Putin appointed Dmitry Rogozin, 44, in a presidential decree, after his candidacy was approved by both houses of parliament last year. He replaced Konstantin Totsky.
"It is clear that the change in decor from ambassador Totsky to ambassador Rogozin is, sadly, not going to change the differences of opinion between Russia and NATO on issues like Kosovo and missile defence," Scheffer said.
Adding to the tensions, Russian bombers also resumed flights near Scandinavian countries recently, resulting in aircraft being scrambled to intercept them.
Such flights were standard during the Cold War standoff with the United States and its western European allies, but were abandoned in 1992 amid financial difficulties that followed the Soviet collapse.
In another sign of concern about NATO closing in on its borders, Russia threatened last week to "review" relations with Ukraine if it presses ahead with plans to join NATO.
Moscow also affirmed that Georgia would not be fit to be a member.
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