Russia's Putin joins NATO for unprecedented sumit

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds an unprecedented meeting with NATO leaders Friday amid deep divisions over the alliance's expansion but possible common ground in Afghanistan.

Putin was to deliver an address during their summit in Bucharest with expectations high that he will invite the alliance to use Russia for transit to the war in Afghanistan.

The ex-KGB officer, who is due to move to the prime minister's post in May after eight years in the Kremlin, is the alliance's most bitter critic, particularly over eastward expansion into the former Soviet bloc.

He won a victory even before arriving Thursday when after months of Russian pressure NATO declined to give Membership Action Plan (MAP) status to ex-Soviet Georgia and Ukraine.

Putin had threatened to target nuclear missiles at Ukraine if the country joined the alliance and his angry rhetoric helped cause a public split in NATO.

Almost 20 years after the humiliating Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia could open its territory to NATO supply convoys, providing the alliance with a potentially big boost in its own struggle to defeat Islamist guerrillas.

"We hope that tomorrow's meeting ... will have as one of the results the land transportation agreement of non-lethal goods for (NATO) in Afghanistan," NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, also attending the Bucharest summit, appeared to confirm that agreement was imminent.

NATO supplies currently reach Afghanistan by air or across the hazardous Pakistan border.

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[link to news.yahoo.com]

Last Edited by Account Deleted by User on 08/30/2011 02:49 AM