NATO, Russia agree on peacekeeping< (The New United Nation Army)

Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov (center) confers with his counterpart, Donald Rumsfeld (left), and NATO Secretary-General George Robertson to formally open the new NATO-Russia Council. (AP)

BRUSSELS - The NATO allies agreed with Russia Friday on basic rules for future joint peacekeeping operations, hailing the deal as another milestone in cooperation between former Cold War foes.

The agreement came through the NATO-Russia Council - a four-month old partnership in which Russia and the western allies consult on counterterrorism, arms proliferation, tactical missile defense, peacekeeping, civil defense and other issues.

At a meeting of ambassadors, the two sides adopted basic housekeeping rules that will enable them to stage joint peacekeeping operations in the future.

The rules cover such basic things as decision-making sequences, consultation provisions, broad participation rules and stress the need for political oversight over military operations.

"In NATO we know how to do all this. We have rules for that but for NATO and Russia, doing this together, it is all new," said NATO spokesman Robert Pszczel.

The agreement came four months after NATO gave Russia a say in crafting and implementing joint polices with NATO in peacekeeping and other areas.

The deal does not affect NATO's core mutual defense role or give Moscow a veto over alliance actions. But it gave Russia a permanent place at alliance headquarters.

Alliance officials expressed delight at the speed of the agreement on peacekeeping principles.

"This decision constitutes a milestone in NATO-Russia cooperation," Lord Robertson said in a statement after the ambassadors meeting.

Officials said the NATO alliance also briefed Russia on the alliance's impending expansion - an issue topping the agenda of a Nov. 21-22 NATO summit in Prague.

Russia, which has already lost three former allies - Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic - to NATO is not keen on NATO planning to absorb more East European nations, such as Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and the Baltic states.

While Russia still formally opposes NATO expansion, Moscow's relations with the alliance have warmed following the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

In June, Russian and NATO defense ministers pledged to step up cooperation in the fight against terrorism, signing an agreement setting up coordination on counterterrorism for peacekeepers

in the Balkans; a joint assessment of terrorist threats to airliners, nuclear power plants and other civilian and military targets;

and cooperation to prevent the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

Russia, NATO hold joint exercise

September 27, 2002 Posted: 18:43 Moscow time (14:43 GMT)

NOGINSK - Explosions rocked a chemical factory Friday, sending balls of flame and acrid black smoke into the air. Within minutes, dozens of fire and rescue crews were at the scene, battling the blaze with planes, helicopters and armored vehicles.

It was not a real attack, but the closing event in a NATO-sponsored, three-day exercise designed to test the readiness of Russia and other nations to deal with a potential terrorist attack on a chemical plant or other hazardous materials site.

Some 1,200 fire and rescue workers from Russia, several NATO countries and former Soviet republics took part in exercise at the training ground of the Emergency Situations Ministry in Noginsk, about 68 kilometers (42 miles) east of Moscow. A mock-up of a chemical factory was built at the base.

"With big serious catastrophes, especially resulting from a serious terrorist act ... we can and need to work together," said Sergei Shoigu, the head of the ministry.

As a crowd of Russian and foreign dignitaries looked on, multinational emergency teams raced toward the blaze in fire trucks and armored personnel carriers and attacked it from several angles.

One group, wearing special chemical protection suits, sprayed flame-retardant foam on a burning tanker, while another group swarmed into a concrete building to search for victims and airlift them off the roof.

Russian helicopters hovered over the fires, dumping buckets of water, while Il-76 jets roared by, releasing clouds of fire-retarding chemicals. A helicopter released five hang-gliders, who drifted over the disaster scene, dropping packets of supplies to rescue workers on the ground.

Officials said they were satisfied with the exercise and said it proved that Russia and NATO need to work together to deal with the aftermath of terrorist attacks.

"We cannot face these kinds of incidents one nation isolated from the other," said Juan Martinez-Esparza, NATO assistant secretary-general in charge of civil emergency planning. "We have to cooperate."

"This allows us, if God forbid something like this should ever happen, to react in a more unified and efficient way," Shoigu said.

Russia provided the bulk of the emergency crews and equipment for the exercise, which was organized under NATO's Partnership for Peace program. Teams from Sweden, Finland, Norway, Italy, Austria, Iceland, and Poland also took part, along with crews from former Soviet republics Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his strong backing to the U.S. war on terrorism and sought to improve ties with NATO and the West. More recently, differences have emerged over Iraq; Russia favors the immediate return to weapons inspectors to Baghdad and rejects U.S. calls for a new United Nations resolution.

The United States did not directly participate in the exercises at Noginsk, but sent a team of some 30 observers from the Defense Department, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other government branches.

"There are things here that the United States can learn and I think that we will learn from our observations," said FEMA Deputy Director Michael Brown, who attended the exercise.

Peacekeeping medals to be awarded at United Nations Day ceremony

OTTAWA, Oct. 18 /CNW/ - The Government of Canada is pleased to announce that a United Nations Day Ceremony will take place at the National Peacekeeping Monument

(NPM), on Sunday, 20 October 2002 at 1:00 p.m. The UN Day ceremony will mark the 10th anniversary of the Peacekeeping Monument

and acknowledge Canada's contribution to peace by awarding 90 Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medals (CPSMs).

CPSMs will be presented to former members of the Canadian Forces, members of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) and to Canadian police officers.

"Canadians everywhere can be proud of Canada's long-standing contribution to international peacekeeping. This ceremony highlights the fact that peacekeeping is a responsibility which is shared by several federal departments," said The Honourable John McCallum, Minister of National Defence who will attend the ceremony.

Medals will be awarded to DFAIT personnel for their participation in the International Commission for Supervision and Control - Indochina (Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia) from August 1954 until June 1974 and in Vietnam from January 1973 until July 1973.

"Peacekeeping is a significant component of Canada's foreign policy and our contribution to the multilateral security system," said Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham. "Canada continues to participate in peacekeeping deployments and policy making because we strongly believe that our security and well-being cannot be separated from the security and well being of people in other parts of the world."

CPSMs will also be awarded to Canadian Police Officers. Specifically, representatives from the RCMP and the Gatineau Police Service will be receiving medals in recognition of their service on peacekeeping missions.

The UN Day ceremony is coordinated with the assistance of the Ottawa Chapter of the Canadian Association of Veterans in United Nations Peacekeeping (CAVUNP) and will feature the laying of flowers by Memorial Cross Mother, Mrs. Dominique Gunther, and a fly past of CH 146 Griffon helicopters.

The Master of Ceremony will be Colonel (ret'd) John Gardam, Curator of the NPM. United Nations (UN) Day is celebrated by UN member-countries during United Nations Week,

which runs from 20 to 26 October, to highlight the UN's aims and achievements.

Media who are interested in attending the event should be at the monument no later than 12:45 p.m.

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