"Very low key" talks held in Finland; DOD source: Mullen seeks to promote cooperation with Russia.
By AP, JPOST.COM STAFFMullen 224.88(photo credit: AP)
US and Russian military leaders met Tuesday for unannounced talks in Finland, the highest-level military meeting between the two countries since Russia's war with US ally Georgia in August, a US Embassy official said.
The participants included Adm. Michael G. Mullen, the chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his Russian counterpart, Gen. Nikolai Makarov, US Embassy spokesman Kim Hargan said. Makarov became Russia's top military officer in June.
Hargan declined to give any details on the talks, which had not been previously announced in Finland, a neutral Nordic country that shares 1,300-kilometer border with Russia and was the venue of several US-Soviet meetings during the Cold War.
"They didn't want it to be high-profile or anything," Hargan said.
Finland's Defense Ministry said the head of the country's defense forces, Adm. Juhani Kaskeala, organized the meeting at an isolated manor house outside Helsinki. It gave no other details.
An official working at the US Department of Defense said the Russians initiated the talks, Israel Radio reported.
The unnamed source reportedly said Mullen was interested in finding common interests that would promote cooperation between the US and Russia.
The war between Russia and Georgia strained already tense ties. Georgia, a stalwart US ally and aspiring NATO member, has received hundreds of millions of dollars in economic aid and its armed forces received extensive training from US instructors.
Those moves have irked Russia, which views Georgia as part of its historic sphere of influence and fears the prospect of another former Soviet republic joining NATO.
Washington and Moscow have also clashed over US plans to base elements of a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. Russia fears the system would be used to either spy on its military or reduce its nuclear deterrent.
In Washington, Pentagon officials declined to give any specifics about the meeting. One official said the Defense Department wants to "continue to foster a good military-to-military relationship with an important country."
Another said information about the meeting had been kept "very low key" - meaning the number of people aware it was going to happen was limited - and that he had no information about any specific issues discussed.
Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about it on the record.
Two months ago, Russia halted military cooperation with NATO, accusing the West of "double standards" over the Georgia conflict. However, it said it still wants to keep working with the alliance to fight terrorism and drug trafficking.
Moscow said the freeze would halt military exercises, exchanges of military delegations, visits by high-level NATO officials to Moscow and stopovers by NATO warships in Russian ports.
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