Russia-NATO Council session Dec 4 to dispute hard

BRUSSELS. December 2. KAZINFORM The Ministerial session of the Russia-NATO Council due on December 4 will take place irrespective of the difficulties in its preparation, NATO Sec-Gen Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in response to a question by Itar-Tass.

"I have to admit, the discussion at the Russia-NATO Council session at the level of foreign ministers will be hard, but all the NATO states are striving to achieve some progress", he said.

Rasmussen refused to comment on the Tuesday statement by the Russian Permanent Representative to NATO Dmitry Rogozin, that Canada had blocked the preparation of all the documents for the forthcoming session.

"I cannot comment on the inside discussion in the Russia-NATO Council", he underlined, noting though, he counts on "preliminary consultations being successfully finished'.

According to the view, voiced by Dmitry Rogozin, the yesterday's demarche of Canada was determined by NATO unwillingness to make the reform of the Euro- Atlantic security structure the main target of the Russia-NATO Council activities, as well as by the Alliance refusal to include Russia into the number of its inner formats, in particular those, concerning Afghanistan, Kazinform cites ITAR-TASS.

See www.itar-tass.com