Russia, Europe narrow divide over NATO
19 Oct 2010
Russia today agreed to attend next month's NATO summit even as French president Nicolas Sarkozy insisted that Europe and Russia should boost mutual ties and work towards a common economic, security and visa-free regime by 2025.
Russia's decision came after reassurances from France and Germany, raising hopes of a NATO compromise over a Europe-wide missile defence shield.
Russian president Dimitri Medvedev announced the decision on Tuesday after two days of talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the northern French seaside town of Deauville.
"I will go to the Russia-NATO summit in Lisbon," Medvedev said after the talks. "It seems to me that this will further the search for necessary compromises and the development of dialogue between the Russian Federation and the North Atlantic alliance as a whole."
Russia has so far taken a cautious approach to offers of cooperation on missile defence as it feared the European missile defence system could evolve into a missile threat for Russia.
Medvedev, however, said: "We are now evaluating the idea of this proposal, but I think that NATO itself needs to understand in what form it sees Russia joining this system, what it will bring, in what manner an agreement can be reached, and how to proceed further."