BRUSSELS, Belgium - NATO found agreement after intense internal debate Thursday to restore normal relations with Russia seven months after it froze ties in response to Moscow's invasion of Georgia.
"Russia is an important player, a global player, and that means that not talking to them is not an option," NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a news conference, at which he announced the decision made by NATO foreign ministers.
It was a step forward for the U.S. administration, which is seeking to establish a broad, positive relationship with Russia after years of tensions.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in her NATO debut, argued in favour of restoring relations by reviving the NATO-Russia Council, a forum created in 2002 to strengthen ties with Moscow, which is not a NATO member.
In her remarks to the NATO meeting, Clinton said the time had come "to explore a fresh start" with Moscow, according to a text released by her staff.
"We can and must find ways to work constructively with Russia where we share areas of common interest, including helping the people of Afghanistan, arms control and nonproliferation, counter-piracy and counter-narcotics and addressing the threats posed by Iran and North Korea," she said.
"We think that this is a step in the right direction. At last common sense has triumphed," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Igor Lyakin-Frolov was quoted as saying in Moscow by Interfax, the Russian news agency.
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon represented Canada at the meeting. He said Canada joined the consensus on resuming formal NATO-Russia co-operation.
"This resumption of formal dialogue with Russia, including at ministerial level, will provide us an opportunity to send strong messages to Russia about the expectations for human rights and international law, including in the context of Georgia," Cannon said in a conference call.
De Hoop Scheffer said there was a NATO consensus that Russia must deal forthrightly with issues of concern to alliance members.
He said NATO continued to strongly disagree with a number of Moscow's actions, including its recognition of the independence of Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The revived NATO-Russia Council would be a forum where such issues could be discussed, he said.
Lithuania, like Georgia a former Soviet republic that gained independence in 1990, argued at Thursday's meeting that the Russia move required more discussion and should have awaited a NATO summit meeting April 3-4 in France, according to a senior U.S. official who revealed details of the private talks on condition that he not be identified. The summit will be U.S. President Barack Obama's first alliance meeting.
Entering Thursday's meeting, many foreign ministers said they believed the time was right to warm up to Russia. Such a move could boost Obama's efforts to build a stronger bond with the Russians after years of tensions during the Bush administration.
But Clinton and the others seemed to have underestimated the depth of feeling by the Lithuanians, who forced the foreign ministers to prolong the meeting and huddle in minister-only negotiations that dragged on well into the afternoon.
De Hoop Scheffer, seeking to dampen expectations for a sudden warming of ties with Moscow, said the decision to revive the Russia-NATO Council does not constitute a new approach.
"We have points where we agree," he said. "We have areas where we can better work together. But let's not forget that we have quite a number if areas where we have fundamental differences of opinion and where we think that Russia should be changing its position."
NATO must find ways to manage its differences with Russia, Clinton told the meeting. But she also said the alliance should continue to keep the door open for membership by Ukraine and Georgia despite Moscow's opposition.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Clinton's presence was widely welcomed.
"We can assume there will be a new breeze going through NATO and a new mood of co-operation," he said. "We will need that because the challenges are not getting any easier."
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told reporters upon arrival at NATO headquarters that he would argue in favour of restoring relations with Moscow.
"I think it's important to re-establish the NATO-Russia Council," he said. "In many areas, such as Afghanistan, it is important that Russia and NATO work together." Asked whether that means it will again be business as usual with Moscow, Miliband replied, "Business was changed fundamentally since the Georgia crisis."
The five-day war between Russia and Georgia erupted when Georgian troops launched an attack to regain control over South Ossetia, which has run its own affairs with Russian support since the early 1990s. Russian forces intervened, driving Georgian troops out of South Ossetia and surrounding areas.
U.S. missile defences are another source of tension with Moscow. The Russians are particularly angry about a Bush administration plan -- now under review by the Obama administration -- to install missile interceptors in Poland and a missile-tracking radar in the Czech Republic.
On Wednesday Clinton said the Russians should understand that the missile shield is not aimed at them.
"I think they are beginning to really believe it -- that this is not about Russia," she said.
Clinton also is expected to update the ministers on the Obama administration's review of its Afghan war strategy.
- With files from The Canadian Press
