Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev hosted a trilateral meeting with NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and South African President Jacob Zuma in an attempt to pressure the Western alliance into halting air raids and launching peace talks in Libya.
The meeting took place at the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Monday and was timed to coincide with a Russia-NATO Council at the level of ambassadors. Mr. Zuma, invited to Sochi by the Russian President, presented to Mr. Rasmussen and other NATO delegates a peace plan for Libya the African Union approved on Friday.
Meeting the South African leader ahead of three-way talks with Mr. Rasmussen, Mr. Medvedev proposed they present to the NATO chief their shared views on peace settlement in Libya.
“I would like for them to hear, both from me and possibly from you Mr. President, our opinion about what is happening in that country and how peace can be achieved there,” said Mr. Medvedev.
Moscow supports the African Union's peace proposals and wants it to take a leading role in the settlement efforts. Both denounced French arms drops to Libyan rebels.
“Any supplies of weapons are a violation of the [U.N. Resolution 1973], as also is the sending of military instructors,” said Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov after the Russia-NATO Council meeting.
The meeting failed to bridge differences between Moscow and Brussels over missile defences for Europe but the sides resolved to reach an agreement by the NATO summit in Chicago next year.
“My hope is that we can all meet again in less than a year at the NATO summit in Chicago. And that we will be able to agree on a solution on missile defence that can make the security of NATO territory and of Russian territory more effective,” said Mr. Rasmussen after the Council meeting.
