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Russia: expert says economic ties weak in Russia-US cooperation

MOSCOW. Sept 9 (Interfax)- After increasing their cooperation in the anti-terrorist campaign in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Russia and the United States have failed to achieve noticeable progress in the economic sector, according to Sergei Rogov, director of the U.S. and Canada Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

"Unfortunately, no major breakthrough has been made in economic issues, which are of top priority for Russia," Rogov told Interfax.

He said that so far, there are no signs that the West has changed its stance regarding Russia's entry to the World Trade Organization or regarding its foreign debt.

"Given the role that the U.S. is currently playing in the global economy and in such institutions as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the WTO, its initiatives are, undoubtedly, crucial for resolving many of these issues," Rogov said.

"For all the importance of political and military issues, what counts most are economic problems," he said. "It is important that the mechanisms that have come into being after September 11 start working. Otherwise, the progress achieved in relations between Russia and the U.S. and Russia and the West might be stalled again," he said.

Rogov said that the September 11 events sent a clear signal to Moscow and Washington that their common adversary is international terrorism. "For the first time after World War II, Russia and the West have a common enemy. This has led to dramatic shifts not only in the nature of the dialogue between Russia and the U.S., but also allows us to resolve a wide range of increasingly complex issues, particularly in defense and political issues," Rogov stressed.

He said that Russia and the U.S. still have some disagreements regarding security issues. "There is still a number of issues on which we disagree. NATO enlargement, for instance. Russia is still unhappy with enlargement. This comes both from the U.S. aspiration to take unilateral decisions on the use of military force against those countries it branded as "an axis of evil," without considering the opinions of other anti-terrorism coalition members," he noted.

Rogov believes that such unilateral military actions, sidestepping the UN Security Council, "might undermine international law. Given such an outcome, it will be difficult to say whether this broad coalition will stand such a test."

He said that in addition to Russia, China and many U.S. NATO allies are against U.S. unilateral actions.

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