MOSCOW. May 13 (Interfax-AVN) - NATO Secretary General George Robertson has expressed condolences to Russia over the large number of victims in yesterday's terrorist attack in Zhamenskoye, Chechnya.
Opening a session of the Russia-NATO Council in Moscow, he expressed solidarity with the Russian people after Monday's terrorist attack in Chechnya.
The latest reports say 52 people died in the explosion.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov are also attending the opening of the Russian-NATO Council session.
Concerning the relations between Moscow and NATO, Robertson said that both sides need each other and this is evident now as never before.
He said the formation of the council in Rome almost a year ago was prompted by a pressing need, not by charity or an attempt to gain political points.
Robertson said that he tells those who ask him whether there is any sense in the council to name any other international organization that has managed to do so much in such a short time.
He noted that as a result of the joint efforts between Russia and NATO within the council, a large number of diplomats and military experts have worked to fulfill the mandate given to them by the presidents and prime ministers of Russia and the 19 NATO countries.
Robertson stressed that hundreds of Russian experts from different ministries have gained invaluable experience by interacting with their NATO counterparts. Together, intelligence experts managed to come up with ways to work together in resisting terrorism. Nonproliferation experts worked out methods to resist the spread of ballistic nuclear missiles and weapons of mass destruction, while experts on peacekeeping actions, rescue at sea and other fields acted similarly, he said.
From the very start, Moscow and the alliance did not want the council to be limited to purely technical matters, but rather to act based on a permanent political dialogue in order to track problems, find the solutions together and conduct joint efforts when necessary, Robertson said.