THE NATO Secretary General, Mr Javier Solana, and the Russian Foreign Secretary, Mr Yevgeny Primakov, yesterday ended talks in Luxembourg on NATO expansion without an accord, but saying "some progress had been made", according to a statement.
The two sides have agreed to "intensify negotiations in order to reach agreement at the earliest possible date".
The statement, agreed by Mr Solana and Mr Primakov, made no mention of a new meeting ahead of a planned NATO-Russia summit to adopt the agreement in Paris on May 27th. It also did not say in what areas the progress had been made.
Meanwhile, President Boris Yeltsin put on the pressure by calling for stronger links between China and the CIS.
In an interview in today's edition of the military newspaper, Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star), Mr Yeltsin said: "We will do everything to minimise the consequences for Russian security of NATO's planned enlargement and we will develop integration with member-countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, especially Belarus.
He added: "We will strengthen co-operation with neighbouring countries, above all with China."
Mr Yeltsin had previously played the Chinese card in the sphere of Russian relations with NATO, but his attempts to introduce a similar threat in relation to the other 11 CIS members underlines the importance Russia places on the current negotiations.
Following his summit meeting with President Clinton in Helsinki last month, Mr Yeltsin appeared to accept that NATO expansion would go ahead with or without Russian approval. It had been agreed that a pact detailing Russia's relations with NATO would simply be "binding," he said, apparently backing down on Russia's earlier demands for a "legally binding" document which would clearly define Russia's relationship with the western alliance.
In Moscow last week the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, may not have drawn her six-guns at Mr Primakov, but she rode into town wearing a cowboy hat and told the Russians they would have a "voice" on NATO's expansion but not a veto.
The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland are expected to be the first successful new applicants for NATO membership when the lucky names come out of the hat later this year, but when the vital announcement comes all eyes will be on other, apparently minor but vital, details. Will NATO say that the Czechs, Hungarians and Poles are in, without specifying a date for other applicants, particularly Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia?
No small country appreciates the geopolitical nuances in the region formerly controlled by the USSR better than Finland. Mr Max Jakobson, the former Finnish ambassador to the UN, believes that, should no date for accession by the Baltic nations be announced, Russia will perceive it as a sign that the West has allowed the Baltics, despite their return to independent status, to remain within Moscow's sphere of influence.
