BRUSSELS. Oct 8 (Interfax-AVN) - NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Wednesday that he had accepted an invitation to visit Russia early in December.
Rasmussen, who made the announcement at a monthly news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, said the interests of the North Atlantic alliance and Russia largely coincide and that there are many areas for potential cooperation between NATO and Russia despite fundamental disagreements between them.
One such area is the Afghanistan issue, Rasmussen said. He said NATO is not going to keep its forces in Afghanistan forever and sees strengthening the Afghan government and arming and training the Afghan armed forces as its chief mission in that country. He suggested that Russia help NATO equip and train the Afghan military.
He expressed confidence that, as regards Afghanistan, the interests of NATO and Russia coincide and that it is in Russia's interests to cooperate with NATO.
Issues of weapons trade and interaction on Afghanistan were raised at the latest meeting of the NATO-Russia Council on September 30.