Putin sets sights on historic first visit to Nato HQ

Russia's pledge to fight global terrorism and its rapidly warming relations with Nato should be strengthened next week when President Vladimir Putin meets the alliance's secretary general, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen.

The encounter has been given added importance by reports that President Putin may become the first Russian or Soviet leader to visit Nato's headquarters in Brussels. Quoting Ivan Ivanov, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister, the Novosti news agency said the President intended to make an historic visit to the alliance's offices. That took Nato by surprise. The alliance has been preparing for the meeting to take place on neutral territory in the centre of Brussels, after discussions with the EU, but it does not rule out a change of venue.

No Russian president has set foot inside Nato headquarters. When Boris Yeltsin visited the Belgian capital, the alliance's secretary general met him at the Russian diplomatic residence.

However, Mr Putin said on television two weeks ago that he was intending to visit Nato headquarters. And the new mood of collaboration is growing so fast that, based on the Russian President's comments in Germany this week, the main headline in the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper read yesterday: "Putin wants Nato membership for Russia".

In any event, next week's meeting – the third between President Putin and Lord Robertson – comes in what one official described as a "new climate".

On Wednesday, Sergei Ivanov, Russia's Defence Minister, impressed Nato officials with a 20-minute briefing on terrorism in central Asia.

One source said that his frankness prompted Paul Wolfowitz, the United States Deputy Defence Secretary, to share more information with the Russians than he had done at an earlier meeting with his 18 Nato allies.

Naturally, Russia is not acting from altruism. In return for the pledge to help the US combat terrorism, the West has toned down its rhetoric over human rights abuses in Chechnya. Gerhard Schröder, the German Chancellor, said world opinion should have a "differentiated evaluation" of crack-downs on Chechen separatists and spoke of an "elevated threat" around Chechnya.

Russia can also expect that two policies it fiercely opposes – the expansion of Nato, possibly to include the Baltic states, and an American missile defence shield – will now be put on the back burner.