Interfax's Interview

 "The CSTO is an alliance of countries that address issues related to the security of its members, and they do it in an area that is most sensitive to NATO today," Rogozin said.
 Cooperation between these organizations is not only possible but necessary, Rogozin said. "But there is virtually no such cooperation today. NATO pretends not to notice the reality - a structure that established itself long ago," he said.

 However, without the CSTO's support and cooperation with it, "it is impossible to talk about efficient involvement of coalition members in armed and humanitarian operations in Afghanistan," he said.

 The CSTO and NATO could start establishing some contacts this year, and they might even sign a cooperation agreement, Rogozin said. "I am sure that these two organizations can perfectly cooperate and find a common language," he said.

 Rogozin said he planned to bring up the issue of cooperation between Russia and NATO at the next session of the NATO-Russia Council.

 "I think the discussion of the issue of unblocking and adopting the cooperation program between Russia and the Alliance for 2008 tops the agenda today," he said.

 Rogozin said he would travel to Brussels on Sunday and would meet with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer on Monday to present his credentials.
 Rogozin said he shares the view that the cooperation program was put on the back burner because of Russia's decision to suspend its participation in the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE). "Our partners formally deny that the program has been blocked precisely because of that," he said.

 However, cooperation between Russia and NATO "is valuable in itself and cannot depend on Russia's or other countries' position on certain agreements," Rogozin said.
 "We need to continue working on them and find mutually acceptable agreements rather than block decisions on which our interaction is based," he said.

 The NATO-Russia Council will hold a planned session on January 30, Rogozin said. Discussing priorities in cooperation between Russia and the Alliance is of great interest "primarily because significant political changes are pending in Russia in March 2008," he said.

 "Therefore, it is extremely important to make it clear to them [NATO members] that the continuity of Russia's foreign political course will be ensured in any case," he said.
 Commenting on the possibility that Ukraine and Georgia could become NATO members, Rogozin suggested that these countries had slim chances of joining the alliance.

 "Strictly speaking, Ukraine, not to mention Georgia, do not meet the standards required of candidates to join NATO," Rogozin said.

 "I really doubt that some hotheads in NATO would resort to inviting Ukraine and Georgia at such a difficult moment in our relations with the alliance," Rogozin said.
 In addition, joining any international union or coalition, especially a military one, means that one voluntarily cedes part of his sovereignty and the right to make decisions on many issues in such areas as defense, security, military and foreign policy and delegates this right to a supranational institution, he said.

 "That is, this step is fraught with radical changes and complications in these states themselves, as the matter implies their geopolitical choice and the acceptance of the fact that NATO membership implies the renunciation of their neutral and independent status," he said.

 The implications of Ukraine's and Georgia's accession to NATO would be negative and would lead to the destruction of their military-technological cooperation with Russia and "horizontal relations between the industrialists" in these countries, Rogozin said. "I am not even talking about psychological and humanitarian consequences. I view this situation as dramatic," he said.

 As regards the problem of Kosovo’s status, Rogozin said that this issue is outside NATO's competence.

 "Issues related to the sovereignty of any state and the recognition of other states is solely of the competence of the UN," Rogozin said.
 A number of nations resolutely oppose independence for Kosovo, because it will "undermine the sovereignty of Serbia, a respected state and a UN member," Rogozin said. These are "Russia, China, and many others: there is no consent on the issue in the European Union," he said.

 Rogozin said he believes that independence for Kosovo will lead to the destruction of many multiethnic states within the EU and a surge in separatist sentiments in countries with ethnic or religious minorities.

 "That is why if the West is going to open this Pandora box and ignore the sovereign right of the UN to tackle issues stipulated in its Charter, then of course this will look like an act of force," he said.

 This will be an unfriendly move towards Serbs and will create more tensions in the Balkans, he said. "From the point of view of international law, this will create a precedent that threatens to result is disaster for the current architecture of international security," Rogozin said.

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