#2
Newsday
May 16, 2002
Editorial
Collective Self-Interest
...is drawing Russia into partnership with the West, to the benefit of the former enemies.

A welcome momentum bringing Russia closer to the West has built with astonishing speed this week. First, Washington and Moscow reached a breakthrough agreement Monday to slash their nuclear arsenals, and the next day, NATO and Russia approved a landmark partnership breaching the final barriers between the two former Cold War enemies.

The significance of these moves cannot be overstated. They could alter the strategic landscape profoundly for the United States and its allies - for the better.

Tuesday's historic agreement establishes a NATO-Russia council, a joint decision-making body to fight terrorism and other security threats - such as weapons of mass destruction and regional insurrections - beyond NATO's traditional sphere, Western Europe.

NATO's role would shift from that of a purely defensive alliance to one of cooperative security. As significant, the agreement to form the council - in which Russia will have equal status to current NATO members, but without veto power - comes despite U.S. intentions to withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. In fact, cooperation on the development of missile defense systems is an issue Russia agreed to discuss within the new council.

With Russia no longer objecting to its enlargement, NATO has begun preparations to expand again to include the Baltic states, a development once thought to be too provocative because it would put NATO's borders up against Russia's. It is a move that has been resisted within the Russian power structure. But Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to have overcome those objections in his determined drive to forge closer ties to the West, particularly since its war on terrorism began.

There is little doubt that Sept. 11 played a major role in prompting Putin to make this historic deal with NATO. Russia feels a great sense of threat from Islamic insurrections and terrorism within its borders. What will make this partnership work will not be rosy pictures of friendship between former enemies but a calculated exercise in collective self-interest. That's not a bad basis for this partnership.

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