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Russian Current Events

May 29,2002PLEASE NOTE I DID NOT WRITE THIS ARTICLE!!! IT WAS WRITTEN BY THE AP PRESS!!!The United States and Europe embraced
Russia on Tuesday as a junior partner in the NATO
alliance and agreed to work together to fight
terrorism and defuse regional conflicts.

The decision to create a NATO-Russia Council
that grants the nation shared authority was a
remarkable turnabout for an alliance that formed
after World War II to counter Soviet influence.
World leaders hailed the change as a historic step
toward international cooperation.

"Two former foes are now joined as partners,"
President George W. Bush said at a meeting near
Rome with NATO leaders and Russian President
Vladimir Putin. "This partnership takes us closer to an even larger goal -- a Europe that is whole, free and at peace for the first time in history."

The development came four days after Bush and
Putin signed a treaty to pull about two-thirds of
their nuclear weapons out of service.

"What's happening today turns completely on its
head everything we've lived with up to now," said
Lord Robertson, NATO's secretary general.

In 1999, Russia froze relations with NATO after
the alliance bombed Yugoslavia to halt its war
against the breakaway province of Kosovo.

NATO members and their new partner acknowledged that they have a long way to go before their goal of global cooperation becomes a
reality. Previous efforts to improve cooperation fell victim to persistent Cold War tensions.

In a sign of lingering distrust, NATO nations limited Russia's participation to a handful of issues,including terrorism, and gave any NATO member
the right to bar Russia from deliberations. If the 20 members of the new council lack full consensus on
any issue, the 19 NATO members could address it
alone.

Under the agreement with NATO, Russia will
cooperate on antiterrorism, search-and-rescue
missions, arms control, stopping the spread of
weapons of mass destruction and emergency
planning. The partnership also will seek common
cause in dealing with regional conflicts in the
Balkans, the Mideast and other trouble spots.

"Being realists, we must remember that relations
between Russia and the North Atlantic alliance
have been historically far from straightforward,"
Putin said. Even so, the Russian president said, the significance of the new NATO arrangement "cannot
be overestimated."