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Moscow proposes Western security pact

By DPA,

Moscow : Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has presented NATO and the EU with a draft of a new global security pact, the Kremlin announced.

The Kremlin released Sunday the details of the 14-point European security pact, which it said was aimed at finally breaking with the legacy of the Cold War, via its website.

Medvedev first proposed a Euro-Atlantic security pact during the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Japan last year. Western nations then agreed to consider Russia’s proposals.

The US and Britain has expressed doubt over the need to create another structure alongside NATO for military and political security.

The pact compels signatories to, for example, in the event of an attack, provide each other with military support. Medvedev has also recently called for a security pact between Vancouver to Vladivostok, without giving details.

The final version of the pact is not just meant for heads of state and government of several western countries, but also for members of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), an alliance with the former Soviet Union.

According to the Kremlin, signatories would also be obliged to refrain from strengthening their own security at the expense of other states. Russia sees NATO’s eastward expansion towards its border as a threat and wants to block the admission of the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Ukraine to the western alliance.