PRESIDENT Boris Yeltsin today expressed Russia's opposition to Nato's expansion plans but the Alliance secretary general, Javier Solana, said it would not alter course.
Yeltsin, opening talks in the Kremlin with Solana, told him he would take a tougher line than Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov had done.
``They say Primakov talked to you too mildly so I will be tougher than him in making our position clear,'' said Yeltsin.
Despite Yeltsin's remark, no details of the talks emerged. It was not clear how forcefully Yeltsin, who has said in the past that Nato's expansion would ignite a ``flame of war'' across Europe, expressed his views.
However Solana said Russian opposition to the Alliance's plans to admit eastern and central European states remained unchanged.
``Today the position of the Russian Federation on the issue is the same as it was yesterday,'' he told a news conference after what he described as frank talks.
Solana added, however, that Nato could not be deflected from its enlargement plans. ``The enlargement of Nato was a decision taken long ago in 1994. We are working steadily towards it and we are not going to change course,'' he said.
Solana told Gennady Seleznyov, communist chairman of the Russian lower house of parliament, that the new Nato was different from the old one. ``Nato does not resemble at all the military alliance of the Cold War period,'' he said.
Yeltsin regards Nato's expansion as a threat to Russia's security that will sow deep mistrust. He is also anxious to look firm on the issue four months before an election in which he is seeking a second term in office.
After Solana's two-day visit, the main question appeared to be how much co-operation Nato could now expect from Russia with its offer of forging a new Partnership for Peace relationship.
Nato wants Russia to accept enlargement as inevitable and join in closer co-operation on European security issues. It sees Russian military participation in peacekeeping operations in Bosnia as a model for this.
Moscow agreed last May to join Nato's Partnership for Peace programme, which deepens military links with its former Cold War foe, but has not yet activated an individual programme.
The Kremlin was clearly going to hear a similar message from US Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who arrived in Moscow from Prague today.
Christopher was to have dinner with Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov and hold talks with Russian President Boris Yeltsin today aimed at persuading Russia not resort to isolationism in the face of Nato's determination to expand eastward.
Delegations from the two sides will also discuss a panoply of issues aimed at preparing for a nuclear safety summit in Moscow next month and a USRussian summit immediately afterwards. -Reuter.
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