NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer held talks with a sceptical President Vladimir Putin

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer held talks with a sceptical President Vladimir Putin on Thursday; during a sensitive bridge-building mission to Russia days after seven former Soviet satellites joined the Atlantic Alliance. Scheffer met Putin in the Kremlin after signing an agreement with Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov to set up a Russian liaison office at NATO’s military headquarters at Mons, Belgium. This was meant to re-establish the Russia-NATO partnership, after warnings that Moscow might build up its military along the borders with Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia should NATO station permanent military bases in the three Baltic republics. Putin reiterated Russia’s critical attitude to the expansion of the US-led military alliance right up to its borders. "Russia’s position towards the enlargement of NATO is well-known and has not changed," he said in televised remarks opposite a stony-faced Scheffer. "Life has shown that this mechanical expansion does not make it possible to counter effectively the threats we face today. This expansion could have not prevented the terror acts in Madrid or help resolve the problems in Afghanistan," Putin added. But he said that "each country has the right to chose the form of security it considers most effective" and hoped that enlargement would enable "the strengthening of trust in Europe and the entire world" as well as international security.