REYKJAVIK (voa) – NATO foreign ministers and their Russian counterpart meet Tuesday in Iceland to forge a new security relationship.
NATO ministers and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov are expected to establish a new NATO-Russia Council, where Russia will sit alongside the 19 NATO member nations and have a say in decision-making on issues such as security, terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
The two-day meeting also is expected to review alliance plans to invite new members from eastern Europe at November’s NATO summit in Prague.
In addition, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is expected to press his European counterparts to increase their military spending, so that the entire alliance is ready to respond quickly to various threats, including terrorism.
The meeting in Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, follows the announcement Monday of a landmark agreement between the United States and Russia to dramatically reduce their nuclear arsenals.
President Bush said the agreement will, in his words, “liquidate the legacy of the Cold War.” The accord will slash nuclear U.S. and Russian arsenals from about 6,000 to about 2,000 warheads each.
Plans to increase Russia’s role in NATO discussions intensified after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. Since then, Moscow has shared intelligence with Washington and accepted the United States’ use of military bases in former Soviet Central Asian republics for anti-terrorist operations.
