US endorses restart of top level Nato talks with Russia

The US endorsed yesterday a resumption of top-level Nato talks with Russia, setting the stage for an end to a seven-month freeze sparked by Moscow's war on Georgia.

At a meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Brussels, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that it was "time to move ahead" in ties with Russia, even though Washington remains a strong backer of Georgia.

"It is time to move ahead, not wait in place with the illusion that things will change on their own," she told the ministers, after Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer had recommended that talks resume.

"It is time for realism, as well as hope," she said, as ministers debated whether to return to top-level Nato-Russia Council talks which were frozen over Russia's war with Georgia last August.

"While some perceive the Nato-Russia Council as a reward or concession to Russia, it should be viewed as a mechanism for dialogue on issues where we disagree and a platform for cooperation that is in our interests," she said.

The US has been a strong backer of Georgia's efforts to join Nato, as well as the candidature of Ukraine, and has consistently demanded that Russia change tack before dialogue officially resumes.

Nato and Moscow resumed informal level talks in December.

Alliance diplomats said Wednesday that the first official meeting could take place at the level of ministers after Nato's 60th anniversary summit in early April. Mr Scheffer said ties with Moscow had shown a marked improvement recently.

"My inclination is a positive one, so let's hope that ministers agree with me," he told reporters. When asked when talks in the so-called Nato-Russia Council would resume formally, he said: "I hope sooner rather than later."

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband agreed.

"I think it is important to re-establish the NRC (Nato-Russia Council). That gives us the opportunity to put our concerns directly to the Russians," he said ahead of the meeting also focussed on Nato's troubled mission in Afghanistan.

"It also allows us to engage on issues of mutual concern," he said.

Several nations have wanted to resume formal meetings of the Nato-Russia Council, which meets routinely among ambassadors, but also at ministerial and head of state and government level.

France, Germany, Italy, Norway and Spain maintain that the sanction against the key European energy supplier is counter-productive and have called for a de-freeze for months. Britain joined that position late last year.

On Tuesday, US President Barack Obama revealed that he sent a long letter to his Russian counterpart in a bid to join forces on thorny issues like Iran, nuclear arms and missile defence, in a sign of a new detente.

"There are signals that most of the members of the alliance have the same position" on endorsing a resumption, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.