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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 attends a press conference after the NATO-Russia foreign ministers' informal meeting in Corfu, Greece, June 27, 2009. [Xinhua]

Lavrov demanded that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's proposals for a new European security architecture be discussed in the Council. NATO has said it does not oppose discussions in the Council, but the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe should be the primary forum for this issue.

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Lavrov said Moscow's decisions with regard to Abkhazia and South Ossetia are irreversible. Asked whether Russia would restore diplomatic relations with Georgia, Lavrov said it was not Moscow that severed formal ties with Georgia. It is up to Georgia to restore diplomatic ties with Russia.

On the US plan to deploy a strategic missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, Lavrov said his country welcomes US President Barack Obama's intention to freeze the project. He said Russia hopes a dialogue with Washington would lead to a result that is acceptable to European countries as well as the United States and Russia.

Political relations between NATO and Russia began to thaw in December 2008. But a meeting at ministerial level had failed to materialize.

Russia angrily pulled out of a foreign ministers' meeting planned for the second half of May 2009 after NATO expelled two Russian diplomats for alleged spying. Russia also strongly protested against NATO's military exercises in Georgia in May-June 2009.

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