As NATO prepares for its 11-12 July summit in Brussels – with NATO-Russia relations high on the agenda – and as a Presidential US-Russia summit is due to take place in Finland later this month, there is an urgent need to inject new thinking into the dialogue over how Russia and NATO could safely co-exist and how Europe’s security could be improved as a result.

In pursuit of this vision of co-existence, and in full recognition of the differences between the parties and of the dire state that this relationship is still in, a group of Members and Supporters of the Task Force on Cooperation in Greater Europe have agreed on a common Position Paper to guide the relationship going forward.

The Position Paper, developed during a recent Task Force meeting in London with co-conveners Lord Browne (former Defence Secretary of the United Kingdom), Igor Ivanov (former Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation) and Özdem Sanberk (former Turkish Ambassador to the United Kingdom) proposes a new interim and temporary approach to the management of the NATO-Russia relationship. While treating each other as adversaries, NATO and Russia should at the same time take precautions to ensure they do not to stumble into a conflict.

Please click here to read the Task Force’s full Position Paper entitled "Towards a NATO-Russia Basic Understanding".

The following Task Force Members and Supporters are signatories to this Position Paper:

1. Des Browne – United Kingdom – Chair, European Leadership Network; Vice-Chair, Nuclear Threat Initiative; Former Defence Secretary, Co-chair of the Task Force

2. Özdem Sanberk – Turkey – Former Ambassador to the United Kingdom; Former Under Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Co-chair of the Task Force

3. Bert Koenders – Netherlands – Former Foreign Minister

4. Alexey Gromyko – Russian Federation– Director of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences

5. Vincenzo Camporini – Italy – Former Chief of the Joint Defence Staff, Former Chief of Staff of the Air Force

6. Borys Tarasyuk – Ukraine – Member of Parliament; Former Foreign Minister

7. Ruslan S. Grinberg – Russian Federation – Scientific Director of the RAS Institute of Economics, Corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences

8. Paul Quilès – France – Former Defence Minister

9. Hikmet Cetin – Turkey – Former Foreign Minister

10. Benoit d’Aboville – France – Former Ambassador and Permanent Representative to NATO, Vice President of the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique

11. David Richards – United Kingdom – Former Chief of the Defence Staff

12. Anatoliy Adamishin – Russian Federation – President of the Association of Euro-Atlantic Cooperation; Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation

13. Stefano Stefanini – Italy – Former Permanent Representative to NATO; Former Diplomatic Advisor to the President of Italy

14. Nathalie Tocci – Italy – Director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali, Special Adviser to Federica Mogherini, the EU’s High Representative and Commission Vice-President

15. Igor Yurgens – Russian Federation – Chairman of the Board of the Institute of Contemporary Development, Vice President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs

16. Erich Vad – Germany – Retired Bundeswehr general and Director for Military Policy at the Federal Chancellery, Lecturer at the Universities of Munich and Salzburg

17. Klaus Wittmann – Germany – Retired Bundeswehr general, Senior Fellow Aspen Institute Germany

18. Vitaly Zhurkin – Russian Federation – Director Emeritus of the RAS Institute of Europe, RAS Full Member