NATO, Russia upgrade ties at Italy summit

NATO and Russia took their once-hostile relations to a new level of partnership on May 28, and pledged to use their stronger ties to confront the "common enemy" of global terrorism.

Russian President Vladimir Putin joined U.S. President George W. Bush and leaders of the 18 other NATO nations in adopting the Rome Declaration at a landmark summit held at a heavily-guarded Italian air force base outside the capital.

The declaration establishes a NATO-Russia Council in which Moscow will have an equal voice in taking decisions on such hot-button issues as terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, arms control, crisis management and military cooperation.

Bush said the accord puts Russia "on the path to forming an alliance" with NATO, founded 53 years ago by the United States and Western European allies to face down the threat of a Soviet invasion.

"This partnership takes us closer to an even larger goal: a Europe that is whole, free and at peace," he said.

"By working together (against the threat of terrorism), we multiply our effectiveness," he added. "The NATO-Russia Council gives us the opportunity to move forward together on common challenges."

But he added: "We'll be practical, moving forward step by step."

That remark recalled Washington's insistence that the scope for cooperation with Russia be limited, at least at the outset, to a specific list of areas.

Putin, striving to assert Russia's role in world affairs, described the Rome Declaration as nothing less than "historic," and a valuable tool for confronting "the common enemy" of terrorism.

"The significance of this is difficult to underestimate," he said, sitting between the prime ministers of Spain and Portugal as if Russia was just another full-fledged NATO member.

"It reflects the commonality of security interests in the rapidly changing global environment," he said.

NATO Secretary General George Robertson, recalling the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, said "There is a common enemy out there" that needed to be defeated by "the leaders of the democratic world (who) find solutions and find them together."

"The passage of time should not dim what happened on Sept. 11," added British Prime Minister Tony Blair. "We have the terrorists on the run in Afghanistan, but it is still out there as a real and potent threat."

Under the terms of the May 28 agreement, the NATO-Russia Council will meet every month at the level of ambassadors, with foreign and defense ministers each holding their own gatherings twice a year.

Though it will take decisions by consensus, the Kremlin will not enjoy any power of veto over positions taken by the 19 transatlantic allies in NATO's policy-making body, the North Atlantic Council.

The day-long summit, hastily organized by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi using purpose-built facilities that resembled the set of a television variety show, took place at the Practica di Mare air force base, 30 kilometers outside Rome.

Security was intense, with 15,000 police and soldiers mobilized, Italian warships sealing off the Mediterranean waters around the base, and even restrictions on commercial airline flights into and out of Rome.

NATO had signed an initial cooperation pact in Paris exactly five years and one day earlier, on May 27, 1997, when Boris Yeltsin was Russia's leader and Bill Clinton was in the White House.

But the "19 plus one" structure of the original NATO-Russia Council turned out to be little more than a talking shop that left no one satisfied.

It was so ineffective that Russia suspended its participation in 1999 in protest over NATO's decision to wage an air war against Yugoslavia over Kosovo.

Relations began to thaw after Putin came to power last year, with the tempo picking up dramatically after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The fresh spirit in East-West relations was underscored over the weekend when Bush paid a four-day visit to Russia, while the European Union will hold its own summit with Russia on May 29 in Moscow.

Russian news media blew cool on the summit. Nezavisimaya Gazeta recalled that "Moscow still has considerable differences with NATO" - particularly over the alliance's planned expansion into Eastern Europe.

Nine countries, including the Baltic states, are hoping to be invited to join NATO when its leaders meet again in the Czech capital Prague in November.