Sergei Ivanov States That Full Mutual Understanding On Combating International Terrorism And On Non-proliferation Of Weapons Of Mass Destruction Was Reached With Ministers Of Nato Countries

Full mutual understanding on the key themes which can form part of the format of a discussion within the framework of Twenty was actually reached at the meeting of the Russia-NATO Permanent Joint Council (PJC) at the level of the heads of the military agencies held at the headquarters of the Northatlantic alliance. Minister of Defence of Russia Sergei Ivanov stated this during his live appearance in the Podrobnosti (Details) programme of the RTR TV channel on Tuesday, December 18. He specified that the struggle against international terrorism and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction are such themes. As Ivanov said, "in actual fact, all the Ministers of Defence who took the floor declared to be in favour of precisely such themes that are real threats and challenges which we regrettably encountered and proved to be unprepared for them in the 21st century". The head of the Russian military agency noted that the matter concerns not only closer cooperation at the level of the Defence Ministers of the NATO countries and Russia. As he said, terrorism as a notion is wide enough and is linked with the necessity to pool efforts in many directions, first of all the economic sphere, along the lines of secret services, in the field of improving the migration policy, and naturally along the lines of the Defence Ministries, since the military come to combat terrorism only when all the other means have already been exhausted". Sergei Ivanov stated again that Russian servicemen would not participate in the international peace-keeping forces in Afghanistan. "There will be no Russian participation in this concrete project of sending peace-keepers to Afghanistan", he emphasized. The Minister recalled that the president of Russia more than once stated that Russian servicemen "will in no form stay on the territory of Afghanistan with arms in their hands, and we undeviatingly pursue this line". As Sergei Ivanov said, "rendering humanitarian aid to the transitional government in Afghanistan is an option. If the question is formulated in this way we have long been doing it".