Nato welcomes Russian offer on peacekeeping

Nato today welcomed a Russian offer to create a special military brigade trained to work with the western alliance on international peacekeeping missions.

“It’s a good example of the many very concrete ways we can cooperate,” said Nato Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer after Russian defence minister Sergei Ivanov met alliance ministers.

Mr Ivanov told a news conference in Nice that Russia’s general staff had already been in contact with Nato’s military headquarters to discuss how the brigade could work with the alliance.

Mr Ivanov said Moscow had proposed setting up the brigade this month to make it easier for Russians to participate in international peacekeeping. English-language studies would be part of the brigade’s training, he said.

Both Mr de Hoop Scheffer and Mr Ivanov stressed improved co-operation between Nato and Russia.

But Mr Ivanov repeated long-standing Russian complaints over a treaty, dating back to the 1990s, to limit heavy weapons across the continent.

Russia ratified the treaty in July, but Nato nations have linked their ratification to Russian troop pull-outs from the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Georgia.

Moscow says a pledge to withdraw from Georgia and Moldova is separate from the treaty.