Russia comes out for new quality of relations with NATO

The establishment of qualitatively new relations between Russia and NATO will become "an important element of the comprehensive system of security on the entire Euratlantic space," Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov said at Stanford University (northern California) on Tuesday. According to him, a long-term European stability will depend on how responsible the two countries will be in implementing this initiative. Russia, Igor Ivanov pointed out, is ready "to carry its part of the burden" so that "the future mechanism for the 20-countries format should allow us to jointly elaborate decisions and realise them in practice in the interests of the international and regional security." This will be the Russian stand, Igor Ivanov stressed, at the forthcoming Russia-NATO summit scheduled for late May in Rome.