International security

Nato and Russia - in search of dialogue

"Nato and Russia, based on an enduring political commitment undertaken at the highest political level, will build together a lasting and inclusive peace in the Euro-Atlantic area."

So read the Nato-Russia Founding Act, signed in Paris in May 1997.

This document - with the Cold War over and the Soviet Union gone - was to have been the start of a new, more constructive relationship.

"Nato and Russia," it went on, "do not consider each other as adversaries."

Well, how things have changed! While tensions are clearly not at the level of those at the height of the Cold War, they are rising.