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#1
BBC Monitoring
Russia prepared for as much cooperation as NATO is ready for - Putin
Source: Russia TV, Moscow, in Russian 1100 gmt 23 Nov 01

[Newsreader] President Vladimir Putin is currently meeting the NATO secretary-general at the Kremlin. This is George Robertson's second day in Moscow, and he has already had talks with virtually all of the military leaders of the country. The leitmotif of the meeting was Putin's remark that Russia is not standing in line to join NATO, but is willing to develop relations with the alliance to the extent that the alliance itself is willing to. Our correspondent, Dmitriy Sedov, has been following the meeting, and here he is live on air. Dmitriy, what did they talk about?

[Correspondent] Hello, Anna. This meeting was undoubtedly of a historical nature. As far as we may judge according to its protocol part, it proceeded in a very friendly atmosphere. In any case, the sides declared that they are very satisfied with this process, more than satisfied even, with the process of rapprochement between NATO and Russia. George Robertson evaluated this process very positively. And this is some of what the Russian president said about this:

[Putin] I have already said that I am very pleased to meet you again, esteemed general-secretary. I would like to thank you, esteemed general-secretary, for your personal stance and energy in the development of relations between NATO and Russia. During the course of this visit, you have already had talks at the Foreign Ministry, the Defence Ministry and the Russian Security Council. I am certain that your visit will benefit security in Europe and the whole world. In any case, we assess very positively the recent development of relations between NATO and Russia.

On the one hand, we are not standing in line for acceptance in NATO. But on the other hand, we are willing to develop relations to the extent that the alliance itself will be prepared for...

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