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British FM: West should not isolate Russia

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-06-28 10:17

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband (Front, R) is interviewed prior to the informal foreign ministers meeting of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) on Greece's Ionian island of Corfu, June 27, 2009. [Xinhua]

CORFU: The West should find shared interests with Russia and engage it, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Saturday.

"I never believed it was right to try to isolate Russia -- that's not a good thing. It's better to engage," Miliband told reporters upon arrival for an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers with their Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

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The meeting is the highest-level political contact between the NATO and Moscow since the Russia-Georgia war in August 2008.

NATO suspended high-level political contacts with Russia after the military conflict and strengthened ties with Georgia. Political relations began to thaw in December 2008. But a meeting at ministerial level failed to materialize before.

Miliband said there are new security threats -- nuclear proliferation, terrorism and climate change -- that face the West and Russia together, not separately.

"There are security threats that we can better tackle with Russia than without Russia," said Miliband, citing Afghanistan and Pakistan as examples.

He hoped for a serious discussion between NATO and Russia to pinpoint shared interests and to work together.