NATO Expansion ‘Red Line’ in Russo-U.S. Ties – Kremlin Official

President Dmitry Medvedev will raise Moscow’s opposition to Georgia and Ukraine’s NATO membership at a meeting with his U.S. counterpart, George W. Bush, in Japan on the sidelines of a G8 summit, Kremlin foreign policy adviser Sergei Prikhodko said.

“Disagreement persists between Russia and the United States on ‘European arena’ [issues] – these are Kosovo and conventional weapons control in the context of the CFE [Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe], as well as plans to push Georgia and Ukraine into NATO,” Interfax and RIA Novosti news agencies quoted Prikhodko as saying on July 6.

“For us this is still a ‘red line’ for further development of relations with the Alliance and with the United States in particular,” he added. “I think that the Russian president will reiterate this [position] in talks with George Bush during the meeting in the frames of the G8 summit.”

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