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NATO, Russia agree to resume military-to-military contacts

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-06-28 10:57

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) attends the informal foreign ministers meeting of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) on Greece's Ionian island of Corfu, June 27, 2009. [Xinhua]

"Despite the fact that there are differences ... the spirit (ofthe meeting) was one of wanting to cooperate," he said.

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There are lots of things in the NATO-Russia Council that the two sides can discuss and take decisions on, he added.

NATO, however, insists that the ministerial meeting does not mean that the alliance is returning to "business as usual" with Russia.

"It means we are back to business. It was not the business that was totally frozen. But at the political level and at the military-to-military level, I expect we will leave Corfu back to business," said NATO spokesman James Appathurai prior to the meeting.

Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband denied that NATO is resuming business as usual with Russia. "Business as usual suggests you've forgotten what happened. Russia has not forgotten what happened; and Europe has not forgotten what happened," he told reporters upon arrival, referring to the Russia-Georgia conflict.

NATO allies are still opposed to Russia's recognition of Georgia's two breakaway regions -- Abkhazia and South Ossetia -- as independent states and to Moscow's veto of presence of international observers in the two regions.

Lavrov said on Saturday that the NATO-Russia Council should not have been suspended in the first place as the mechanism was created to discuss crisis situation.

He also said that the founding principles of the NATO-Russia Council, including the principle of "indivisibility of security" among all member states of the Council, should be made legally binding.

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