ROBERTSON: NATO WILL DEEPEN COOPERATION WITH PARTNERSHIP FOR PEACE COUNTRIES

REYKJAVIK, May 15 (hina) - NATO and Partnership for Peace member countries must deepen cooperation in vital areas in order to be able to contribute to the Euro-Atlantic security in the world which changes fast, NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said at a meeting of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council in Reykjavik on Wednesday.#L# In the time of great changes, security relations also must continue to evolve. This also applies to NATO, as well as the Euro-Atlantic Council, Robertson said at the opening of the meeting of 19 NATO foreign ministers and their 26 counterparts from Partnership for Peace member-countries from Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) was established in 1997, as a forum for political and security consultations and expanded cooperation among partnership for Peace member- countries. Robertson said that changes within the Partnership for Peace Programme and the EAPC would be defined at a NATO summit in Prague in November. At the meeting in Reykjavik, decisions on re-defining relations with Russia were adopted. The present supported candidacies of countries which expect invitation to membership in Prague. Croatia joined the Membership Action Plan (MAP). The meeting is also attended by Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula and his counterparts from the other nine member-countries of the so-called Vilnius Group, countries aspiring to join NATO. (hina) it