Differences over Kosovo loom at NATO-Russia talks

Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and his NATO counterparts met in Norway Thursday.

Izvor: AP

Thursday, 25.10.2007.

14:15

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Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and his NATO counterparts met in Norway Thursday. Differences over Kosovo and U.S. plans to install missile defenses in eastern Europe loomed large at the talks. Differences over Kosovo loom at NATO-Russia talks The meeting comes days after U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that Washington may delay activating the proposed missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic until it has "definitive proof" of a missile threat from Iran. Gates outlined that proposal to his NATO counterparts before Serdyukov joined the meeting. The announcement was widely seen as an attempt to mollify Russian opposition to the U.S. plan. Russia and NATO nations are also divided over Kosovo. Moscow opposes a Western backed plan to grant the province internationally supervised independence from Serbia. While talks continue, Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority is promising to follow through on a threat to declare independence unilaterally in December if their is no settlement. NATO ministers Wednesday agreed to maintain the alliance's 16,000 peacekeepers in the territory and ready for any new outbreak of violence. "We'll keep up that level," NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters. "There is, of course, not a single argument to bring down the force levels. We have to see to it that KFOR is ready for all eventualities, that KFOR is able to protect majority and minority alike." Before the talks with Serdyukov, NATO ministers agreed on the need to scale down a new elite force less than a year after it was declared ready to serve as the spearhead of the allies' military modernization drive. Allied commanders have been forced to rethink the NATO Response Force because the deployment of thousands of soldiers to Afghanistan, the Balkans, the Middle East and Africa has left the 26 nations with to few combat forces to maintain the 25,000-strong unit. NATO spokesman James Appathurai declined to say how small the new "core" force would be.

Differences over Kosovo loom at NATO-Russia talks

The meeting comes days after U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that Washington may delay activating the proposed missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic until it has "definitive proof" of a missile threat from Iran.

Gates outlined that proposal to his NATO counterparts before Serdyukov joined the meeting.

The announcement was widely seen as an attempt to mollify Russian opposition to the U.S. plan.

Russia and NATO nations are also divided over Kosovo. Moscow opposes a Western backed plan to grant the province internationally supervised independence from Serbia.

While talks continue, Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority is promising to follow through on a threat to declare independence unilaterally in December if their is no settlement.

NATO ministers Wednesday agreed to maintain the alliance's 16,000 peacekeepers in the territory and ready for any new outbreak of violence.

"We'll keep up that level," NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters.

"There is, of course, not a single argument to bring down the force levels. We have to see to it that KFOR is ready for all eventualities, that KFOR is able to protect majority and minority alike."

Before the talks with Serdyukov, NATO ministers agreed on the need to scale down a new elite force less than a year after it was declared ready to serve as the spearhead of the allies' military modernization drive.

Allied commanders have been forced to rethink the NATO Response Force because the deployment of thousands of soldiers to Afghanistan, the Balkans, the Middle East and Africa has left the 26 nations with to few combat forces to maintain the 25,000-strong unit.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai declined to say how small the new "core" force would be.

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