Russia"s envoy to NATO expressed frustration today at the military alliance"s unwillingness to discuss Moscow"s proposals for European security and said it could affect prospects for increased cooperation on Afghanistan, according to Reuters. Ambassador Dmitry Rogozin accused some NATO countries of blocking Moscow"s calls for a Russian security plan to be discussed in the NATO-Russia Council (NRC), a body in which the two sides discuss cooperation. Speaking hours before an address in which U.S. President Barack Obama was expected to announce plans to send more troops to Afghanistan, he said this would not affect cooperation that has already been established with NATO over Afghanistan. But he told a news briefing: "We cannot be flexible on expanding our cooperation on Afghanistan when certain countries in NATO cannot demonstrate even the most basic partner-like relations." "We are going to make a link between new requests from NATO with the need to demonstrate on their side true partnership...I believe I will have full support from Moscow on that," he said. Rogozin made his comments after he met NATO ambassadors to prepare for a meeting on Friday between alliance foreign ministers and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. NATO states have said they are willing to discuss the Russian proposals, but that the correct forum to do so is the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Rogozin said it was still desirable for Friday"s meeting to go ahead and that there were other issues to be discussed. "We should not over-dramatise the situation," said NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero, saying a compromise could be reached. Russia"s security proposal, published on Sunday, would restrict its ability to use military force unilaterally if the United States and its European allies agreed to do the same. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said the European Security Treaty is needed to replace Cold War-era institutions ill-suited to defusing tensions in a multi-polar world.
