NATO suspends cooperation with Russia - Rasmussen

KIEV. KAZINFORM - NATO terminates cooperation with Russia, set to strengthen collective defense of the military alliance's member states and will expand its level of cooperation with Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Thursday.

NATO Secretary General said that if Russia conitnues to destabilise the situation in Ukraine, more sanctions will follow. "I have no doubt the international community will respond with tougher sanctions if Russia continues to intervene further," Rasmussen told reporters in Ukraine's capital Kiev, ITAR-TASS reported. He urged Russia "to engage in a sincere dialogue for a peaceful solution" of the Ukrainian crisis. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen arrived on Thursday on a visit to the Ukrainian capital city Kiev to discuss the entire spectrum of relations between Ukraine and NATO. "This visit is vitally important for Ukraine, since it will demonstrate NATO's political support," Vasily Zvarych, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Spokesman, told journalists ahead of the visit. "This visit serves as evidence that the North Atlantic Alliance supports European path of development of the Ukrainian state and society."