Putin tells NATO “Let’s be friends”

BUCHAREST - Russian President Vladimir Putin urged NATO to work towards compromise on disputes over enlargement, arms control and missile defence at a cordial farewell summit on Friday.
Putin acknowledged that the “resurrection of a strong, independent Russia” in his eight years in office had not made relations easy, but he said his successor Dmitry Medvedev had an opportunity to build ties.
A 90-minute meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush and other NATO leaders in Bucharest yielded no big breakthroughs on disputes ranging from Kosovo to a planned U.S. missile shield that have dragged ties to a post-Cold War low.
But although Putin reaffirmed Russia’s fierce opposition to NATO’s enlargement plans as a potential threat, his tone was very different from the searing attacks he has launched on Washington and its allies over the past year.
“Let’s be friends, guys, and be frank and open,” he told a news conference, declaring that another Cold War was impossible.
Putin’s appearance marked the first time in six years that NATO leaders have invited the Russian leader to a summit and comes a month before he hands over to his protege Medvedev.
On Saturday, Putin will host Bush -- also in the twilight of his presidency -- at his Black Sea villa in Sochi to explore U.S. ideas for a possible “strategic framework” security pact which Bush would like to leave as a legacy.
“You know we’re two old warhorses and we’re both getting ready to step down from our positions,” Bush told the NATO-Russia summit, according to a U.S. official.
He said Bush also appreciated comments by Putin that Russia felt Washington was listening to its security concerns about a planned U.S. missile shield.
Bush in turn “acknowledged that we have more work to do to convince the Russian people that NATO is not a threat, but a tool to deal with the challenges of the 21st century.”
No breakthroughs
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a news conference: “I cannot report that this morning we saw stunning breakthroughs.”
But he added: “The talks were in a positive spirit.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for more frequent meetings with the Russian leader and said: “NATO is not against anyone -- certainly not Russia. Russia is a partner.”
Both Putin and Merkel said a solution ought to be possible on the stalled treaty curbing Conventional Forces in Europe. Moscow has suspended its participation, arguing the terms of the pact signed with the crumbling Soviet Union are unfair to it.
Few had dared predict the mood of the Putin encounter after NATO vowed that former Soviet Ukraine and Georgia would one day be members, without putting them on an immediate path to entry.
That compromise came on Thursday after Germany, France and smaller European states resisted U.S. calls for the two to be granted Membership Action Plans (MAP), insisting they were not ready and pointing to risks of exacerbating tension with Russia.
Putin reiterated longstanding Russian concerns about NATO’s intention to expand further eastwards and said Moscow would regard the emergence of a powerful military bloc on its Western borders as a “direct threat”.
Behind closed doors, he urged NATO to take account of some 17 million Russians living in Ukraine, notably in the Crimea, and warned it was a complex country, participants said.
He also argued that Georgia did not need NATO membership but dialogue to solve its problems with breakaway regions.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko reassured Moscow his country’s aim was not directed against its former master.
“Our state has the full right to choose our own way of development, protect our security and our interests. Our interests are not destined (to be) against any other country,” Yushchenko told an earlier session in Bucharest.
NATO and Russia signed a land transit pact allowing the alliance to deliver non-lethal supplies to troops in Afghanistan across Russian territory, but it did not cover troop transport or air transit arrangements as initially sought by NATO.
Western leaders saw the talks as a way to gauge how much control Putin plans to retain once Medvedev takes over as president next month, with Putin becoming prime minister.
Asked if he regretted leaving office, Putin said he was ”looking forward to removing this burden” from his shoulders.
“My successor is very well educated. You will have some interesting times with him.”