Czech Project Can Help Lift NATO-Russia Ties

Moscow Expands NATO's Routes

Russia to Allow More Supplies to Flow to Afghanistan Amid Efforts on Both Sides to Improve Ties

By STEPHEN FIDLER in Brussels and GREGORY L. WHITE in Moscow

The leaders of the 28 North Atlantic Treaty Organization nations, including President Barack Obama, also will agree with Russia at a meeting in Lisbon to investigate ways in which they can cooperate on defenses against the dangers posed by ballistic missiles.

The effort to warm relations threatens to be set back by delays in the U.S. in ratifying the Start arms-control treaty, which is aimed at reducing numbers of the two countries' strategic nuclear arsenals. A key Republican senator, Jon Kyl of Arizona, said Tuesday that he wouldn't support ratifying the treaty this year, delivering a blow to a central White House foreign-policy objective.

Despite this, Russia and NATO signaled this week they wanted to enhance ties that reached a recent low point after Russia's August 2008 invasion of Georgia.

"We want this summit to turn the page on the NATO-Russian relationship," said Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's ambassador to NATO, in an interview. Russia needs predictable relations with the world's largest political-military alliance, he said.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the summit would mark a "fresh start in our relationship with Russia. ...The time has come to stop worrying about each other...and to work together, and we will," he said.

The NATO-Russia meeting comes after a summit that begins Friday, where NATO members are expected to agree to a new strategy for the alliance.

Diplomats said the alliance is expected to sign off on a plan to convert a U.S. missile-defense program into a NATO project aimed at defending all alliance territory in Europe and Turkey.

Although the system is initially aimed to deal with what they see as a potential threat from Tehran, the leaders won't name Iran. They note that more than 30 countries are developing ballistic missiles capable of reaching NATO territory.

On Saturday, there will also be a summit of the 49 nations involved in the NATO mission in Afghanistan.

The leaders are expected to sign off on a plan to begin handing over security to Afghan forces next year and ending the alliance's combat role in the country in 2014.

The transit agreement with Russia will expand the goods that can be sent on rail routes through Russia to include armored cars, such as U.S. MRAPs, according to NATO officials. Some 4,000 containers have passed through Russia to Afghanistan since 2008, according to NATO and Russian officials, and the number of shipments has accelerated since June.

Supplying Afghanistan from the north is 90% cheaper than airlifting in supplies, and less hazardous than transporting them by truck through Pakistan.

Mr. Rasmussen said Russia also is expected to permit goods to be shipped out of Afghanistan through its territory.

At the moment, railroad cars return empty from the border with Afghanistan, so that change could be a big help as the alliance reduces its combat role in the country.

Mr. Rasmussen said that only nonlethal materials would be allowed to go through Russia.

Mr. Rogozin indicated that, despite the expected agreement on possible missile-defense cooperation, Russia had continuing concerns that the system could be directed against it. "Why, if you want to hunt a rabbit, do your guns have the caliber to kill a bear?" he asked.

He said the alliance should put restrictions on the missile-defense system's "geography, quality and quantity."

The current U.S. plan, particularly in its later phases, "is nothing to do with the threat," Mr. Rogozin said.

He said Mr. Medvedev would nonetheless suggest a plan for possible cooperation, including sharing information about missile programs in third countries, joint use of reconnaissance information and, possibly, sharing technical information and technology.

The warming ties follow Mr. Obama's March 2009 initiative to "reset or reboot" the relationship with Russia. However, Samuel Charap, a Russia specialist at the Center for American Progress, a think tank in Washington, said the delay on Start "makes Russia doubt whether Obama is a partner worth doing business with again."

Russian officials expressed hope that any delay in ratification wouldn't scuttle the treaty or derail the improvement in U.S.-Russian relations.

"I haven't the slightest fears about the policy of 'reset,' " said Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the International Affairs Committee in the upper house of Russia's parliament. Sen. Kyl's concerns "are related not to U.S.-Russia relations but to U.S. domestic politics," he said, adding, "He's not proposing torpedoing ratification, just delaying it."

Russian officials said they still hope ratification could happen before the end of the year, in line with assurances Mr. Obama gave Mr. Medvedev when they met in Japan over the past weekend. A long delay in the process could threaten Russian cooperation in other areas, such as containing Iran's nuclear ambitions and supporting the NATO war effort in Afghanistan, Mr. Margelov said.

Alexei Klimov, deputy chairman of the International Affairs Committee in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, underlined that the treaty is in both sides' interests. He said Moscow is willing to be patient and won't ratify the treaty before the U.S. does. "We'd like to do it, but we're not pulling our hair out to get it done," he said. "It would be a shame if such a serious document becomes a hostage in a partisan political battle."

Write to Stephen Fidler at stephen.fidler@wsj.com and Gregory L. White at greg.white@wsj.com