NATO expansion at odds with Russia's interests: top official

Russian Security Council chief Igor Ivanov on Sunday questioned NATO's capability to counter emerging security threats, and said its enlargement runs counter to the interests of Russia and the states about to join the alliance.

Terrorism is not on the ebb despite NATO's enlargement and the alliance cannot cope with the task of rebuffing present-day threats, Ivanov told the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, a think tank that gathers Russian politicians, officials, experts and business leaders.

The United States, Britain and Spain have been stricken by terrorist attacks and the new NATO members are not feeling safe, Ivanov said. "Then the questions pop up: why does NATO expand? What is NATO's role in present-day international relations," he said.

NATO's expansion is not just "an abstract, technical question" and Russia viewed all actions on its enlargement as political moves, he said.

"This enlargement goes against the interests of NATO, the states about to join NATO and other nations like Russia," Ivanov said.

Seven countries -- Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia -- formally joined NATO on March 29, 2004 in the fifth and largest round of enlargement in the alliance 's history.

Source: Xinhua