U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will visit Russia next week for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov on efforts to define Russia’s relationship with the NATO alliance.
State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said Wednesday in Washington that he does not expect the issue to be resolved during the visit but that it is important to sustain the effort.
Albright will leave Washington next Wednesday and return two days later.
As the trip was announced, the Clinton administration began its campaign to win Senate support of NATO enlargement after Albright ruled out a compromise with Russia on a key demand blocking an alliance security agreement with Moscow.
She told the Armed Services Committee:
“Russia would also like us to make absolute commitments in the (proposed Russia-NATO) charter about the deployment of nuclear and conventional forces on the territory’s new members. But we will not compromise on this issue.”
