NATO-Russia Council meeting to enable parties to agree on avoiding dangerous incidents - analysts
MOSCOW. July 9 (Interfax) - No breakthroughs should be expected from the upcoming NATO-Russia Council meeting in Warsaw, but this meeting could help develop rules of the game to prevent dangerous incidents, in the view of Russian political experts interviewed by Interfax.
"There'll be no breakthroughs, especially considering that there is one thing that annoys Russia very much now, namely the deployment of the alliance's battalions in Poland and the Baltic states. This is a very strong irritant for Moscow, and therefore no improvement in relations with NATO is visible," Center for Political Technologies First Vice President Alexei Makarkin told Interfax.
However, the meeting could be positive if the parties reach agreement on avoiding dangerous incidents, he said.
"There is an opportunity to restore at least some contact and reach agreement on some rules of the game, so as to avoid surprises, such as, for example, the danger of accidental military collisions or near collisions between ships or aircraft," he said.
If the parties reach understanding on the matter, then the upcoming meeting might produce positive results, he said.
"This event in itself could be a small step toward having an opportunity to reach agreements. If the parties agree to make just a little step back, this would be quite significant progress," he said.
At the same time, there are no reasons to expect that Moscow and the alliance would normalize confidence at this meeting, as this process is likely to take years, he said.
Sergei Karaganov, an honorary chairman of the Foreign and Defense Policy Council presidium, suggested that the upcoming meeting would be purely symbolic.
"The alliance is not ready for normalizing relations. And I believe the maximum that could be achieved is a tiny step toward making an appearance of normal relations," Karaganov told Interfax.
Karaganov was skeptical about the efficiency of communication between Moscow and NATO in this format. "The NATO-Russia Council has already shown is unproductiveness," he said.