Afghanistan:Russia has pledged a support package to help Nato crush a Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, while ruling out sending troops to the country it occupied for nine years during the Cold War.
Russian defence minister Sergei Ivanov said after meeting Nato counterparts in the Spanish city of Seville that Moscow would provide intelligence and reconstruction aid. He confirmed plans to write off $10 billion (€7.7 billion) of Soviet-era debt.
"Russia has the most vital, visceral interest in ensuring that [the Nato-led] International Security Assistance Force makes a success of stabilising the situation in Afghanistan," he told a news conference after the talks.
"Clearly we are never going to be able to send our troops into Afghanistan," he said of the country from which Soviet forces pulled out in 1989 after suffering humiliating losses at the hands of Islamic insurgents.
Mr Ivanov noted Russia had already signed agreements with France and Germany to allow them to transport equipment across Russian territory to their troops in Afghanistan, and said Moscow was ready to sign a similar accord with Spain.
He also offered unspecified intelligence support to Nato and help in getting the war-shattered Afghan economy - largely dominated by the illegal drugs trade - back on its feet.
Access for Russian businesses to contracts in Afghanistan was a condition for writing off the $10 billion debt piled up during its occupation, but Mr Ivanov made no mention of such agreements.
Nato is still perceived with suspicion by many Russians.
Tensions between Russia and the West have grown amid concerns that Moscow is using its dominance as an energy supplier to wield influence over its European neighbours.
- (Reuters)