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NATO MILITARY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN ON RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA

MOSCOW, OCTOBER 23. /FROM RIA NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT OLGA SEMYONOVA/. - Chairman of the NATO military committee Harald Kujat believes that the present "great relations with Russia" allow the alliance "to significantly cut down its strategic structure and to concentrate on peacekeeping, based on the Balkan experience", he told journalists after a meeting in Moscow with first deputy head of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Colonel General Yuri Baluyevsky.

At present NATO is witnessing changes in the command structures of the joint armed forces, Kujat said. "We are working on its reform, and the first step in this direction has already been made", he pointed out. The new structure "should correspond to the new reality, be more flexible and able to react to new threats", the chairman believes.

Russia and NATO have achieved a significant success in their cooperation in the 20-format, he emphasized. The general gave a high assessment to the activities of the Russia's permanent delegation to the alliance.

In the near future the staff of the main military envoy to NATO will be reinforced, Baluyevsky reported in this connection. "The reform process is underway" both in the Armed Forces of Russia and in NATO armies "and here we have many common approaches", he said.

The conversation was mainly devoted to the improvement of practical activities and interaction within the framework of the 20, the meeting's participants said. They also discussed preparations for the international conference within Russia-NATO cooperation, due in December in Moscow and devoted to "the role of the military in fight with terrorism", Baluyevsky pointed out. Serious changes have appeared in the relations between Russian and NATO military structures, and the meeting was held in a good working atmosphere, he said. In his turn, Kujat stressed, "We have known each other long, and today it was a meeting of good old friends".

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