Arnaud de Borchgrave: Russia "Makes Nice" at NATO Summit: "There was much common ground between Russia and the Atlantic alliance on a wide spectrum of global issues -- from transnational terrorism to nuclear proliferation and from piracy to illicit narcotics. Moscow had even enlarged the list of non-lethal items the United States and NATO are allowed to move to Afghanistan through Russia for the war effort against the Taliban insurgency, to include armored vehicles.
Most important of all, Russia has finally decided to sign on to a NATO ballistic-missile defense system designed to deter Iran's growing number of medium range missiles that could in the foreseeable future threaten the Middle East and southern Europe with nuclear weapons.
Unstated in the language of diplomacy: neither Russia nor the NATO allies believe they are a threat to each other.
Unstated, too, is Moscow's wish to be included in NATO's decision-making process. Otherwise, say the Russians, a joint anti-missile system wouldn't make much sense. Russia is closer to Iran than much of Europe is."
