Agence France-Presse,
BRUSSELS (AFP): Talks between NATO and Russia Wednesday on Moscow's decision to freeze a key Soviet-era arms pact produced no breakthrough but will continue, an alliance spokesman said.
“There was no change in the respective positions of the NATO countries or Russia. But the discussion was very detailed, with a lot of explanation from Russia,” said the spokesman, Robert Pszczel.
“There are real differences, but the last word has not been said. There is a willingness to talk,” he said, adding that NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer had closed the meeting by saying: “To be continued…”
Earlier Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin brushed aside criticism of his decision to suspend the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, which limits troops and arms in Europe, saying the pact contradicted reality.
The treaty “came from the time when there were two blocs, NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The situation has undergone a cardinal change,” he was quoted by news agency RIA Novosti as saying.
It “has clearly come to contradict reality,” he said.
Russia said this month that it would suspend its application of the treaty within 150 days — on December 12.
Russia attributed its freeze to the failure of NATO members to ratify a revised 1999 version of the treaty but Moscow has also been riled by US plans to deploy an anti-missile shield in two former Soviet satellite states.
NATO countries have said they would only ratify the CFE treaty once Moscow has lived up to a pledge made in 1999 to pull its troops out of former Soviet republics Georgia and Moldova.
Pszczel quoted a Russian official at the so-called NATO-Russia Council as saying: “We are not talking for the moment about withdrawal but rather a suspension.”
The next NATO-Russia Council is in September.
