NATO wary Russia ready for Afghan help

MOSCOW—Russia is ready to help NATO on Afghanistan, provided that Moscow’s security interests, including a halt to eastward expansion of NATO, are respected, Russia’s deputy foreign minister said Friday, Interfax news agency reported.
Russia is “considering the possibility of deepening” cooperation with NATO over Afghanistan, but this will not happen “if each other’s lawful security interests are not taken into account,” the official, Alexander Grushko, told Interfax. He highlighted NATO expansion plans — with ex-Soviet Georgia and Ukraine high on the waiting list — as a key security concern of Moscow.
“Further steps toward realising NATO’s ‘open doors’ policy does not strengthen the security of NATO itself, nor the security of countries declaring their intention to join the alliance, nor, moreover, the security of Russia,” Grushko said. “This project is from the political past, and does not concern the real security demands of our day,” he said.
Grushko spoke just days before the April 2-4 NATO summit in Bucharest, where President Vladimir Putin will be attending.—Agencies