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Russia in NATO? Not anytime soon: experts

By Zhang Haizhou and Peng Kuang (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-31 09:08

A suggestion that Moscow can become a member of a military alliance is a 'tease' and a 'joke', Chinese analysts said Thursday.

US Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon said on Tuesday that Washington is not ruling out Russian membership in NATO. Gordon said the alliance should be open to European democracies, the Associated Press reported.

Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev speaks during an interview in Moscow July 26, 2009. [Agencies]

"If Russia meets the criteria and can contribute to common security, and there is a consensus in the alliance, it shouldn't be excluded," he was quoted as saying.

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But Chinese analysts ruled out the possibility "in the foreseeable future", and noted the Georgia issue will remain a major problem hampering Moscow's relations with NATO.

Fu Mengzi, assistant director of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, said Russia and NATO have "totally different views and ideologies" on security.

"The membership will be possible only after remarkable progress is made to improve strategic trust between the two sides," Fu said.

Neither Russia nor the NATO "is prepared" well enough for Moscow's membership, he added.

He said Gordon's remarks actually reflect Washington's strategy to expand NATO further eastward. The strategy has long kept Moscow "on vigilance".

"It's like telling Russia: You can join the alliance, so can Ukraine and Georgia," Fu said.

On July 23, US Vice-President Joe Biden reportedly told Georgian parliament in Tbilisi that Washington "fully supports" Georgia's "aspiration" to become a member of NATO.

Tao Wenzhao, an analyst in American studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said conditions are still "premature" for NATO to absorb Ukraine and Georgia in the first term of President Barack Obama.

He called Gordon's remarks on Russian membership "a joke".

Xing Guangcheng, director of CASS' Institute of Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, agreed, saying Gordon was just "teasing" Moscow as it will never meet the "criteria" set by NATO.

The West didn't consider Russia a democracy even when Boris Yeltsin was in power, Xing said. "Russia can never reach that criteria."

Meanwhile, NATO reportedly has played down the suggestion of Russian membership.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai said Russian membership "is not the issue of discussion" in the alliance, the Georgian Times reported.

The Tbilisi-based weekly newspaper also said the membership is "not in the interest" of either NATO or Russia.