Russia Stunned by UN-NATO Cooperation Deal

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (1950- )

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday that Russia was shocked the UN and NATO secretly signed a cooperation agreement without all UN member states reading the draft. “Before such agreements are signed, their drafts should be submitted to member states for reading. But, in this case, this did not happen, and the agreement between the secretariats was signed secretly”, Mr Lavrov told journalists after a CIS foreign ministers’ meeting in Bishkek. He said he asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon whilst at the UN General Assembly last month why such secrecy was needed, but, “received no comprehensible explanation”.

He also said it was surprising that although the document implied cooperation between the two secretariats, its text contained provisions related to immediate prerogatives of member states, including the intention to cooperate in maintaining international security on the basis of the UN Charter and certain international directives. “We asked both secretariats what this could mean and we are waiting for a reply, but, we warned the UN leadership in the strictest fashion that things of this kind must be done without keeping secrets from member states and on the basis of powers and authority held by the secretariats”, Mr Lavrov said. He added that cooperation between the UN and regional organisations was in general a normal and necessary thing, but, said such ties must be transparent and arouse no questions.

Russia’s envoy to NATO, Dmitri Rogozin said late Wednesday that Ban Ki-moon and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer signed the declaration of cooperation between the secretariats on 23 September during the UN General Assembly in New York. Mr Rogozin accused Ban Ki-moon of acting beyond his powers and pointed to a discrepancy between the preface and the body of the document, saying Moscow could not consider the document legitimate and would view it as reflecting the UN chief’s personal opinion. Mr Rogozin said he hoped the issue would be raised in the UN Security Council and the secretariat, as well as at NATO, because the document related to Afghanistan.

9 October 2008

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20081009/117635210.html

Editor’s Note:

The old master takes the neocons out to the woodshed, yet again. Bush, Cheney, Rice, McCain, and Palin were caught red-handed filching from the cookie-jar. Mama Bear’s not going to like that! They haven’t learned their lesson! Papa Lavrov is going to have to take the strap off the wall and give them a good hiding. America has lost its power to intimidate, and Russia knows it. I should mention that a naval battle-group from the Northern Fleet centred on the nuclear-powered battlecruiser Pyotr Veliki is on its way to scheduled manoeuvres with the Venezuelan forces. A new world is being born, one in which the neocons are dangerous and lunatic juveniles. They must be treated accordingly. Kaufft nicht bei McCain und Palin.

What were they thinking? Russia has a veto on the Security Council and can orchestrate a majority in the General Assembly. This was an empty and worthless gesture. All this does is to cement the Russian-Chinese alliance and draws India closer to joining them. Reflect on the fact that the underlying goal of Russian foreign policy is the creation of a “strategic triangle” of Russia, China, and India to oppose American aggression on the Eurasian “world-island”. This idiotic move of the neocons made this all the more probable.

May God have mercy on America. We are running amuck and need stopping, as quickly as possible.

BMD