As he announced, the Russian Cabinet will discuss prospects, within this month, to approve a troops status agreement with NATO, and offer it to President Vladimir Putin for signing. The standards the document advances do not comply with the acting Russian legislation. So, if the President signs it, the agreement will demand ratification, said the minister.
The agreement concerns peacekeeping forces' status. The work on its draft started in February 1994 on resolution by Boris Yeltsin, then Russia's President. The Foreign Ministry was guiding the efforts. There were three rounds of talks on the matter-all abortive-before 1999, when the Kosovo crisis broke out.
Russia's Foreign and Defense ministries resumed negotiations with NATO on the agreement, 2003.
An intergovernmental understanding to enhance control of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile launchers is expected for signing quite soon. Its drafting started on Russian initiative. The USA joined the efforts, and the document is ready now, added the minister.
He regards closer SAM control among the most promising fields in Russia's anti-terrorist alliance with NATO countries, which is making rapid progress.
Mr. Ivanov called NATO countries to step up efforts building up SAM control. As Russia sees it, the matter demands an all-round approach-mainly within world and regional organizations and export control mechanisms. Certain progress has been made by the United Nations, the OSCE-Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the CIS-Commonwealth of Independent States, the G-8, and the Wassenaar Understandings. The cause certainly demands efforts stepped up by principal countries manufacturing SAMs, stressed the minister.
