NATO, RNC Foreign ministers to meet in Berlin Apr 14-15

BERLIN, March 23 (Itar-Tass) - A meeting of the Foreign ministers of
the member-countries of NATO and the Russia-NATO Council (RNC) is to be
held in Berlin from April 14 to 15, Christian Schmidt, president of the
German Atlantic Society and Parliamentary State Secretary at the German
Defence Ministry, announced here on Tuesday night.
Schmidt spoke at an international conference, held at the Russian
Embassy, on the theme of "New NATO Strategy --Start of Strategic
Partnership with Russia?".
There are clear signals pointing to an improvement of Russia-NATO
interaction, and this is very important, Schmidt said. "We are confident
that the RNC is of substantial importance. This importance will be
growing. The RNC is a dialogue platform that will prrmote an improvement
of relationships and lower the level of misunderstanding," Schmidt
emphasized.
From Schmidt's point of view, NATO's strategic cooperation with Russia
is essential. Both sides are interested in deepening it. All participants
in this process are aware that this is highly important for the
establishment of a European security architecture and for responses to
such challenges as efforts to combat crime, terrorism, sea piracy, and
other problems.
The conference that drew more than 400 representatives of the
political and public circles of Germany was also attended by Alexander
Grushko, Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Zdislaw Lachowski,
deputy chief of the national security bureweauy, Hans-Dietrich von Pletz,
former Ambassador of the FRG to Russia, who also held the positions of
Representative of Germany at NATO and member of the expert group on the
elaboration of NATO's strategic concept.