European Community Should Have Listened To Russia's Terrorism Warnings Earlier

The European community should have listened to Russia's warnings about terrorism in relation to events in Chechnya earlier, said Monday President of the Western European Union Assembly Claus Buhler. Speaking in Moscow, at the conference on European security in the 21st century organized jointly by the WEU Assembly and Russian Federal Assembly (or Parliament), Mr. Buhler admitted that Russia did warn about the threat of terrorism, but the European community did not comprehend, and the two sides never reached a common language. Mr. Buhler voiced his support of the idea that secret services of European countries and Russia work more in line with each other and provide each other with all necessary information. Having stressed "the necessity of Russia's active participation" in solving international issues, Mr. Buhler said that new terrorist challenges call for "new security strategies" from every world state. In this regard, he said that he welcomed smoother cooperation to make sure fight with terror brings positive results. Deputy Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federation Council Mikhail Margelov also spoke at the conference. He said that although Russia's attitude to different European Institutions varied, there had been a positive shift towards better relations between Russia and these organizations, NATO in particular. The WEU Assembly is an interparliamentary consultative organization comprising nine member countries of the Western European Union. The organization mainly focuses on developing a unified foreign defense policy, coordinating efforts to develop state-of-the-art technologies, and creating the all-European weapons market on this basis.