NATO ambassadors hold first talks with Russia in six months (Roundup)

Jan 26, 2009, 13:19 GMT

Brussels - NATO ambassadors Monday discussed how to better cooperate with Russia in Afghanistan in the first meeting with their Russian counterpart since the alliance froze relations with Moscow in the aftermath of August's conflict in Georgia.

Carmen Romero, a spokeswoman for the alliance, said the talks with Russia's ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, took place in 'a very positive spirit.'

'There were no recriminations, nor any desire to discuss disagreements,' Romero told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Instead, 'ambassadors discussed areas in which cooperation could be fruitful and advantageous for everybody, for example in Afghanistan,' Romero said.

NATO placed high-level meetings of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC), which governs relations with its Cold War enemy, on hold in August to protest Russia's invasion of Georgia.

Since then, Germany, France and Italy have been pushing for those meetings to resume, arguing that NATO must talk with Russia.

NATO is eager for Russian help in securing alternative supply routes into Afghanistan.

Currently, more than 75 per cent of NATO's supplies, including 40 per cent of fuel for its troops stationed in landlocked Afghanistan, is transported overland through Pakistan's Khyber tribal district.

   But Islamist militants in recent months have conducted dozens of raids on truck terminals in Peshawar and convoys in the adjacent Khyber district, forcing the authorities to repeatedly close down the strategically important supply route.

Last week, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said his country would cooperate with US President Barack Obama on Afghanistan and allow US and NATO forces safe passage through its southern territory to support operations against terrorism.

Officials say NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer would likely hold talks with Russia's deputy prime minister, Sergei Ivanov, when the two men meet in Munich, Germany, for a security conference on February 7-8.