Comment of the Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia A. K. Lukashevich in connection with the forthcoming participation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia S. V. Lavrov in the meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in Brussels

On December 4 the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia S. V. Lavrov will take part in next meeting of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) at the level of the ministers of foreign affairs in Brussels.

NRC will review the implementation course of the agreements on the building of genuine, strategic, upgraded partnership of NATO-Russia Council on the principles of indivisibility of security, mutual trust, transparency and predictability in order to create a common space of peace, security and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area reached during the summit of the NATO-Russia Council on November 20, 2010 in Lisbon.

The positive in cooperation for countermeasure of common risks and threats - terrorism, piracy, natural and man-made disasters was accumulated. However, significant differences on fundamental issues affecting the vital security interests of Russia, especially regarding to plans of the United States and NATO to build the missile defense system in Europe, continuing of the expansion of NATO, the compliance with norms of international law by the alliance remain.

In the framework of the ongoing dialogue on missile defense systems partners will be accommodated with Russian approaches to the possible cooperation in this field with the emphasis on the need to giving of clear guarantees that the deploying missile defense systems will not work against our strategic capabilities. Such guarantees must be based on objective criteria, which allow the assessing of compliance of forming missile defense systems with stated purpose – countering to the limited missile challenges originating outside Europe.

The parties will exchange the views on the situation in Afghanistan including in light of the growing threats of terrorism and drug trafficking from the territory of this country that affect the safety of all NRC countries, as well as taking into account plans of the alliance to phase out the international military presence in Afghanistan in 2014. We believe that such actions should be offset by efforts to improve the combat capability of the Afghan armed forces, so that they can independently control the security in the country, effectively counter to extremist groups and drug trafficking.

The Russian side will stress again the importance of cooperation of NATO with the CSTO, which has great potential in the field of countermeasure to Afghan terrorism and the drug threat.

There will be the noting of the need of working on the issues related to ensuring of indirectivity of military planning against each other, the elimination of politicized barriers on the way to the military-technical cooperation, intensification of the dialogue on military doctrines, the exchange of experience in the reforming of the defense sectors.

In accordance with the rules of procedure of the Council the ministers may discuss any other issues relating to security ensuring in the Euro-Atlantic region including the influence of the situation in some regions on it particularly in the Middle East and North Africa.

December 3, 2012