Thursday, Sep. 27, 2001. Page 2
Robertson Plays Down Putin Report
Reuters
BRUSSELS, Belgium -- NATO Secretary-General George Robertson on Wednesday played down a report that President Vladimir Putin would become the first Russian or Soviet leader to visit NATO headquarters during a visit to Belgium next month. Earlier, RIA Novesti said Putin would hold talks with Robertson at the alliance's sprawling, prefabricated headquarters on the outskirts of Brussels during the Oct. 2-3 visit. "Frankly, I think it is of lesser importance where my meeting with the Russian president is than the substance of the talks themselves," Robertson told a joint news conference with Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov. "I think the location may well be driven by security concerns rather than by individual choices," he said. "Of course the president of Russia would be welcome to come to this building and I don't think there are any ideological or theological reasons why he would not want to be here," Robertson added. The main reason for Putin's visit to Brussels is a pre-scheduled summit with the European Union. But the Sept. 11 attacks by hijacked aircraft on the United States now look likely to dominate his talks with both the EU and with NATO. Ivanov was in Brussels on Wednesday for a one-day meeting of NATO defense ministers also devoted to the attacks and to the international response to them. The visit underlined the growing rapprochement between Russia and the 19-nation alliance in the face of what Robertson called "the scourge of international terrorism." http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2001/09/27/012.html | ||||
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