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Russian defence chief says NATO enlargement still sore point in relations
Interfax

Brussels, 6 June: NATO enlargement remains a point of "dispute" in Russia's relations with the North Atlantic alliance, Russian Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov has said.

"The position of the Russian Defence Ministry on the further enlargement of NATO remains unchanged. Moreover, we believe that the creation of the '20' [the new Russia-NATO council] is to no extent a form of psychological compensation for the enlargement of the alliance," Ivanov said during the council's first session.

"It should be noted that we meet within the framework of our Russia-NATO Council to solve disputed and at times painful points in our mutual relations. One such point is the course of the alliance for the further enlargement of its membership.

"Undoubtedly, enlargement is an internal matter of the alliance, and we do not intend to dramatize the situation to any extent, but it would run entirely against our interests if the negative scenarios of the past years, where Russia was listened to but not heard, were to be repeated," he said.

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