Free Republic

"Does Russia Need the West?" William J. Burns, U.S. Ambassador to Russia Moscow, May 30, 2006 Thank you for inviting me to speak at this very timely conference. This is a moment of considerable frustration and doubt about the relationship between Russia and the United States. You can hear it and feel it every day in both our capitals. From the American side, there are concerns about over-centralization of power here and about Russian behavior toward some of its neighbors. From the Russian side, there are concerns that Americans do not understand how difficult the last 15 years have been...

The United States cautioned France and Germany on Tuesday against going ahead with plans for a European military headquarters separate from NATO, warning it would be an expensive duplication of resources and risked harming alliance unity. U.S. Ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns said the Europeans should focus on modernizing their armed forces to deal with global terrorism rather than build an expensive new headquarters. "The rules of the road are that NATO and the European Union are partners ... that the EU will not develop duplicative institutions," Burns said at a breakfast meeting organized by a Brussels think tank. The...