(NSI News Source Info) MOSCOW - April 3, 2009: Russia said April 2 that joining
NATO was not on its immediate agenda, rebuffing a statement by the Polish foreign minister that Moscow would be welcome in the alliance.
"In the current situation the question of NATO membership for Russia is not a practical matter," a Russian foreign ministry spokesman, Andrei Nesterenko, told reporters.
But Moscow is "ready to develop normal, fully partner-like relations with the alliance," Nesterenko said when asked about the comments by Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski.
Sikorski said in a speech March 30 that he would not be against Russian membership in NATO.
"Russia is the only one who can decide if NATO ... is a chance for it or a threat," Sikorski said in an address to Torun University in northern Poland that was later broadcast on national television.
"Personally, if Russia declared itself to be a potential candidate for the alliance, I would not be against."
The idea of Moscow joining its former Cold War foe NATO was debated in the 1990s but never became a reality, with Moscow and the West instead choosing to form a consultative body called the NATO-Russia Council.
The defense minister's spokesman Piotr Paszkowski described his comments as "free thinking during a debate with students" adding that Sikorski had presented a "hypothetical opinion."
NATO was not on its immediate agenda, rebuffing a statement by the Polish foreign minister that Moscow would be welcome in the alliance.
"In the current situation the question of NATO membership for Russia is not a practical matter," a Russian foreign ministry spokesman, Andrei Nesterenko, told reporters.
But Moscow is "ready to develop normal, fully partner-like relations with the alliance," Nesterenko said when asked about the comments by Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski.
Sikorski said in a speech March 30 that he would not be against Russian membership in NATO.
"Russia is the only one who can decide if NATO ... is a chance for it or a threat," Sikorski said in an address to Torun University in northern Poland that was later broadcast on national television.
"Personally, if Russia declared itself to be a potential candidate for the alliance, I would not be against."
The idea of Moscow joining its former Cold War foe NATO was debated in the 1990s but never became a reality, with Moscow and the West instead choosing to form a consultative body called the NATO-Russia Council.
The defense minister's spokesman Piotr Paszkowski described his comments as "free thinking during a debate with students" adding that Sikorski had presented a "hypothetical opinion."
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