From Interfax:  Russia and NATO have a good potential for cooperation, the Russian Defense Ministry’s foreign relations chief said on Saturday.

"It is essential to develop this potential because it will help carry tasks that face the Russian Armed Forces," Sergei Koshelev told Interfax-AVN and Russian newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) ahead of a planned international conference on European security on May 23-24. . . .

"There is the Cooperative Airspace Initiative (CAI), where we train joint action in the event of a civilian aircraft being hijacked. We run joint logistic programs for situations where, say, the United Nations mandates NATO and the Russian Federation to carry out peacekeeping operations, in other words we need compatibility – compatibility of fuels, compatibility of technical facilities for refueling ships and aircraft," he said. . . .

"All those are just a few minor touches, but I would like to stress the main point here – we and the NATO countries can see today that there are the same security challenges both for the countries of the alliance and for Russia. We can see that we have a potential for countering these threats and challenges with joint efforts," he said. . . .

"We also have certain disagreements about the political agenda – you are aware of NATO’s enlargement program, which involves drawing in new countries, including in the space of the former USSR. We are very cautious about those plans, and we can’t see any need for the military infrastructure of NATO getting close to the Russian borders," he said.  (photo: ОРУЖИЕ РОССИИ)

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