MOSCOW. Sept 15 (Interfax-AVN) - NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer on Wednesday appointed U.S. diplomat Robert Simmons special envoy to the Caucasus and Central Asia, the NATO information bureau in Moscow told Interfax on Wednesday.
"As special envoy, Simmons will be responsible for establishing high-level working contacts with regional leaders to support the aims and tasks of NATO [in the region]," a bureau press release says.
Simmons will retain his post of deputy assistant secretary general for political affairs and security policy.
Diplomatic sources told Interfax that Simmons will continue working at the NATO headquarters in Brussels and will go to the Caucasus and Central Asia on business trips.
At the summit in Istanbul in June, NATO countries agreed to pay special attention to relations with countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia, the press release says.