Nato Chief Promotes Friendlier Ties

By Caroline McGrcgor

staff writer

1. On his first visit to Moscow as NATO secretary-general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer sought to dispel anxiety over the Western alliance’s eastward expansion two weeks ago into former Soviet space with assurances that the bloc wants to work with Russia, not against it.

"Russia needs NATO, NATO needs Russia," he told reporters in a message repeated in official meetings throughout the day.

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2. "The problems facing us are simply too big – terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, Afghanistan, the Balkans, Iraq – to think that we can go it alone," de Hoop Scheffer told President Vladimir Putin during a midday meeting in the Kremlin also attended by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov.

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3. It proved a tough line to sell, given the flurry of ruffled feathers over Belgian F-16s patrolling Russia’s Baltic borders since NATO welcomed new members Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania in an official ceremony in Washington on March 29 that boosted its ranks to 26 countries.

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4. Putin, for one, was unconvinced that the expansion would not simply direct energies away from emerging security problems.

"This expansion could not prevent the terrorist acts in Madrid, for example, or help develop the situation in Afghanistan," Putin told de Hoop Scheffer.

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5. Putin said he hoped the expansion would ultimately strengthen international security, but for that to happen, it was necessary to increase the level of trust between NATO and Russia.

"It’s my personal mission to make the Russia – NATO relationship stronger during my term in office," replied de Hoop Scheffer, a former Dutch foreign minister.

April 9, 2004

Текст 2

Генеральный вопрос

Можно посочувствовать новому генеральному секретарю НАТО Яапу де Хоопу Схефферу, который унаследовал от своего пред­ше­ственника, лорда Робертсона, не только всю мощь военного блока, обогатившегося недавно семью новыми членами, но и все недо­вольство российских политиков и СМИ тем, что НАТО продолжает расширяться, вплотную приближаясь к нашим границам.

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Отвечая на эти вопросы, генеральный секретарь НАТО не переставал приводить архивные истины. И только когда был задан вопрос "Вы женаты?" У вас есть хобби?", лицо генерала неожиданно изменилось – если во время брифинга оно было напряженным и мрачным, то сейчас г-н Схеффер впервые улыбнулся.

– Да, я женат больше 30 лет. Моя жена – учительница фран­цузского, я сам люблю французское кино, люблю спорт. Легкую атлетику. Бегаю. Однажды, один раз, правда, бежал марафон – 12 км. Был бы рад повторить, да очень занят. Еще у меня две дочери, 23 и 24 года, и собака – черный Лабрадор по имени Оли...

На том наш брифинг завершился. Генсек ушел улыбаясь, маска дипломата уступила место приятному мягкосердечному собесед­ни­ку, какой он, наверное, и есть в обычной жизни. Когда не о НАТО речь.

Известия,

6 апреля, 2004

Упражнение IV. Переведите текст с листа. Определите контекстуальное значение выделенных слов и проверьте себя по словарю:

Текст 3

V. Putin is eager to establish the same friendly rapport with de Hoop Scheffer that he enjoyed with his predecessor as NATO secretary-general, Britain’s Lord Robertson.

At a Spaso House reception in his honor Wednesday evening, some guests took the mild-mannered de Hoop Scheffer for the U.S. ambassador’s translator.

Scheffer, for his part, came hoping to clinch Putin’s promise to attend a NATO summit in Istanbul, Turkey, in June for a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council. That as-yet unaccepted invitation, however, is bargaining chip Putin was seen as eager to hold on to.

As part of his campaign to boost NATO’s image among ordinary Russians, de Hoop Scheffer gave an interview Thursday morning to Ekho Moskvy radio, where he tried to deflect talk of NATO’s eastward expansion being a zero-sum game.

Instead, he told listeners, expansion signaled new members’ support of NATO’s mission to defend "democracy, the rule of law and human rights," not their fear of Russia.

But a phone-in poll run by the radio station, known for its liberal leanings, showed that 71 percent of the more than 5,000 callers said they considered the Western alliance as aggressive, not friendly, toward Russia.

Asked by a reporter how he planned to dispel such distrust, de Hoop Scheffer said: "By being here. By talking to your microphones and television cameras. I can show I have come as a partner to discuss common solutions to common problems in an open and frank way."

"I’ll be back," he added.

The Moscow Times,

April 9, 2004