PRATICA DI MARE, Italy. May 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian President Vladimir Putin hopes the document that will be signed at the Russian-NATO summit in Italy will become a foundation for constructive cooperation.
"We firmly hope that the Rome document is not a statement of intentions, but a solid foundation for joint constructive work," Putin said at the Pratica di Mare military base, where the Russia- NATO summit is taking place.
He said relations between Russia and NATO have a complicated history and they have come a long way "from opposition to dialogue, from confrontation to cooperation." The signing of the Rome declaration only marks the beginning of essentially different relations, he said.
Putin said the decision to take Russia-NATO relations to a new level has been "received correctly by millions of Russians."
"I believe the people of Western Europe, the U.S. and Canada will also appreciate this move as a sign of our readiness to carry the burden of responsibility for maintaining peace and stability on the planet," Putin said.
Nuclear missile potentials and Cold War era obligations are no longer a panacea for modern threats, Putin said. For Russia, given its geopolitical situation, the development of cooperation with NATO is "one of the real manifestations of a multi-vector approach, for which there is no alternative, and which we intend to firmly follow," Putin said. "We do not think of ourselves outside Europe, but we also believe one cannot underestimate the role of cooperation mechanisms in Asia and the CIS," Putin said.
The Russian president said that only a harmonious combination of actions in all these areas opens up ways of ensuring global security "from Vancouver to Vladivostok."
The significance of theTuesday summit is hard to overestimate, Putin said. Not long ago, such a meeting, considering its format and quality, would have been "simply unthinkable," he said.