European Union" "
The Heads of State and of Government of the 19 countries of NATO, together with the president of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, signed, at a ceremony in Rome on 28 May, the “joint Declaration” that creates the joint NATO-Russia Council and permits Russia to participate, with full right, in the work of the Atlantic Alliance (cf. the interview on p. 7). The Rome Declaration, entitled “NATO-Russia relations: a new quality”, sanctions the cooperation between the henceforth twenty partners in sectors of common interest, including “the fight against terrorism, crisis management, the non proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the management of armaments and confidence-building measures, missile defence, search and rescue at sea, cooperation between the armies and reform of defence, and civil emergency plans”. The new NATO-Russia Council will be chaired by the current Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance, the British George Robertson. The Spanish prime minister José Maria Aznar, current president of the EU, recalled that “now that the totalitarian temptations have been overcome, history gives us two clear lessons: on the one hand, that values and principles cannot be defended alone, on the other that action and firmness are needed to defend them”.
