Tensions between Nato and Russia burst into the open again Thursday at a regional security summit in the Kazakh capital which was marred by undiplomatic comments by Moscow's envoy to the alliance. Russia's outspoken ambassador to Nato, Dmitry Rogozin, stole the limelight at the annual Euro Atlantic Partnership Conference, when he compared Nato to a man courting a lover.
"It often happens that loyal wives are given flowers by their admirers. Here Nato is an admirer of Kazakhstan and he is giving her flowers," Rogozin said, the Interfax news agency reported. His comments carried the implication that Nato was trying to seduce the Central Asian state from its true partner - Russia. Ties between Nato and the Kremlin have been strained in recent years and Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer was annoyed when asked about the Russian diplomat's comment.
"I have to disagree with my friend Dmitry Rogozin and I'll not tread on this question of being a lover of anyone. Nato is a political-military organisation," he said. The conference, which opened Thursday and is the first ever Nato forum to be held in ex-Soviet Central Asia, is entitled "Security Through Partnership" and was convened to discuss regional security issues. Moscow has repeatedly said the Cold War military alliance was encroaching on its borders by courting ex-Soviet states for the alliance.