BRUSSELS. Dec 3 (Interfax-Kazakhstan) - The Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization are not NATO rivals, the alliance's Secretary General George Robertson has said.
Robertson told Kazakh journalists in NATO headquarters in Brussels that Russian and Central Asian countries' contacts with NATO does not mean that each of them cannot deal with their own problems.
He said that the Collective Security Treaty Organization is not a NATO rival, adding that the organization's members have their own interests and there is no problem in their maintaining special relations with Russia, China and other countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The organization includes Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Armenia.
Robertson said that it goes without saying that Russia and each NATO member have their own security interests.
He stressed that the alliance maintains bilateral contacts with some countries. Robertson said that NATO has no objections to other countries setting up unions or organizations and believes that such cooperation can and should continue.
He noted that NATO does not rule out that (its partners) can establish unions of all kinds with other countries, but the alliance itself works together with certain countries separately.