Norway confirmed on Wednesday that Russia would freeze its cooperation with the Western alliance NATO, according to reports reaching in Stockholm from Oslo.
Russian authorities informed the Norwegian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday that officials in Moscow were immediately halting, canceling or postponing all planned military cooperation with NATO 's members, the Norwegian daily Aftenposten quoted government sources as saying.
The warning from Russia comes a day after NATO members meeting at a summit in Brussels criticized Russia's military aggression in Georgian territory and voted to suspend cooperation with NATO's Russian council, the daily said.
"There's no doubt that our relationship to Russian has now chilled," Espen Barth Eide, state secretary in the Norwegian Defense Ministry, told Aftenposten.
Around 10 joint military exercises were planned involving Russian and NATO members through the end of this year. They will probably all be canceled, the daily said.
(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2008)
