15 December 2008: The National
Loveday Morris, Correspondent
MANAMA // Russia is ready to build trust with Nato and may allow a supply route for the alliance’s troops in Afghanistan through the country, an official said yesterday.
A supply line to Afghanistan, including access to railroads and air corridors, is “realistic”, Mikhail Margelov, the chairman of the Russian Federal Council’s foreign affairs committee, said on the sidelines of the fifth regional security summit in Bahrain, known as The Manama Dialogue.
Russia also wants to “move forward” with the United States and co-operate with the new administration on Iran, Mr Margelov said.
Relations between Russia and Nato, long rocky, took a turn for the worst since the conflict with Georgia in August when Russia halted all military co-operation with the organisation. Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, recently said normalising ties with the alliance would be very difficult.
“The experts are discussing the details [of the supply routes], let them do that quietly,” Mr Margelov said, adding that the situation between Russia and Nato is warming. A gradual resumption of dialogue was agreed to this month.
“I see several signals, several indications of the improvement of relations. I think that we could really build some realistic projects together, Russia and Nato, we can build trust, we can build a certain climate of co-operation.”
Mr Margelov said the Russian public would never support the country’s forces going into Afghanistan “for obvious reasons”, but that Russia could contribute to the fight against terror there through different channels “like through the transportation and supply of goods”.
“Looking at the map we see many roads and paths going to Afghanistan but in fact they are dangerous … The Russian corridor is the safest. That is why Nato and Russia have a common interest,” he said.
Recent attacks along the supply route through Pakistan have given a “new urgency” to finding alternative routes for the transportation of goods to Nator forces in Afghanistan, Gen David Petraeus, the head of US Central Command, said at the security conference yesterday.
More than three quarters of supplies to Afghanistan pass through Pakistan but Germany already has supply lines through Russia.
“We’ll leave that to the alliance to examine if that should be done further,” Gen Petraeus said, adding he is also looking to such countries as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan for the purchase of some materials.
Mr Margelov also indicated his government wants to “heal wounds” with Washington and described a US-Russian initiative for Middle East peace talks circulated at the UN last week as a “breakthrough” in co-operation after a “very low level of trust” during the last year.
He said Russia is “very positive” about the signals it has received from the new US administration and is willing to co-operate with president-elect Barack Obama on Iran, though he said Russia would not support economic sanctions.
Mr Margelov said incentives and assurances are needed to persuade Iran to stop enrichment of uranium.
“We believe in negotiations and I think that we should not forget that non-proliferation is a carrot and stick policy, so Iran should have real cookies on the plate in order to trust . . . that Iranian security will not be damaged if they give up the so-called nuclear option,” he said.
“We are having several signals from Iran that they will welcome direct contact with the US, particularly with the new administration, and if so they are ready to be more co-operative. They want to talk to the American administration directly. If a new American administration is courageous enough to do that … we can only support that”.
Professor Ali Ansari, director of the Iranian Institute at the University of St Andrews in Britain, said if the US can bring Russia on side it would be a “major boost” for the Amerian diplomatic effort, though economic and financial pressure from Europe was essential.
“It would be quite a diplomatic breakthrough,” he said.
