Robertson: NATO-Russian Relationship Not Up To New Security Challenges

NATO Secretary General, Lord George Robertson of Port-Ellen, believes the current state of the relationship between NATO and Russia to be inadequate for new security challenges, he said in remarks to the Diplomatic Academy while on a visit to Moscow. Robertson said the September 11 suicide attacks on New York and Washington "oblige us to think afresh about the relationship between NATO and Russia". "Because one thing should be clear," he continued, "if we want to come up with a meaningful response to the terrorist menace, to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and other new and emerging threats, we need a solid NATO-Russia relationship." "If we had ever doubted that NATO and Russia share common security interests, the terrorists left us no choice but to face this sobering reality," Robertson enunciated.