London, Washington Favour Extended Cooperation Between Russia And NATO

Great Britain and the USA favour an "extended and specific cooperation and joint activities" between Russia and NATO, the British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, told the British media after a Brussels session of the Permanent Joint Council on Friday. He stressed that both sides were interested in such cooperation. According to Straw, NATO countries have agreed with the opinion of Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov that in the face of the fight against terrorism security is an integral concept, for otherwise it becomes senseless. "We recognise Russia's major role in the fight against terrorism and would like to closely cooperate with it in this issue in the future," the minister said. Commenting on the mechanism of making decisions within NATO, Jack Straw said that they would be made by NATO's 19 members and not in the "19+1" format of the new relations with Russia. However, NATO will do its best to make its decisions acceptable for Russia. "Russia's right to veto NATO decisions is not at issue," the British Foreign Secretary stressed.