GENEVA (AFP) — NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer on Friday said Russia should "clarify" its relationship with the alliance, underlining the strategic importance of the "partnership" with Moscow despite growing tensions.
"For us, a solid, trustful NATO-Russia relationship remains a long term investment in European, and indeed global, security," de Hoop Scheffer said at a conference on global security here.
"It is up to Russia to clarify whether she holds a different view," he added, a day after alliance members Britain and Norway again scrambled fighter jets to intercept Russian bombers that recently resumed patrols over the North Atlantic.
"If we look at Russia's recent behaviour, we see that, even after a decade of steady progress, the NATO-Russia relationship remains vulnerable to Cold War stereotypes," he said.
De Hoop Scheffer also underlined the broader value of the until recently improving post-Soviet relationship for Russia and all members of the now 26-strong North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
"We all know that in dealing with the challenges of a globalised world, a cooperative Russia is a boon," he said.
"We must not allow short term, tactical considerations to put at risk a long-term strategic partnership," he added.
The NATO secretary general said the partnership did not have a switch "you can put ...on and off" and could not "be defined by drawing red lines."
EU foreign ministers meeting in Portugal on Friday stressed ways of improving relations with Moscow, while recognising that upcoming legislative and presidential polls in Russia could strain ties.
Much of the difficulties centre around NATO and the EU's recent expansion eastwards into former Soviet territory.
Rows have also arisen over US plans to base parts of an anti-missile shield in the Czech Republic and Poland and the future status of the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo.
In addition, competing claims over Arctic territory involving Canada, Denmark and the United States have sharpened since Russia signalled with an expedition last month that it might lay claim to part of the North Pole seabed.
Concerns over European reliance on Russian oil and gas and the poisoning of a former Russian agent have also clouded the diplomatic waters.
