(13 Jun 1999) English/Nat
US deputy secretary of State Strobe Talbott ended talks on Sunday with Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov on deciding the role of Russia's peacekeeping force in Kosovo.
The talks had resumed earlier as news came of a new column of 200 Russian military vehicles preparing to cross into Yugoslav territory from Bosnia.
Talbott told APTN the two sides had agreed that these troops would not yet move into Kosovo.
He added the United States and Russia were moving towards an agreement that Russia would have its own "area of responsibility" in Kosovo.
Russia sent a detachment of 200-300 paratroopers from its Bosnian peacekeeping contingent into Kosovo on Friday, and by Saturday morning the unit occupied Pristina airport.
The unexpected move by the Russians forced U-S Deputy Secretary of State, Strobe Talbott to turn back mid-air and return to Moscow on Friday for urgent talks with the Russian Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov.
Ivanov called the deployment a mistake.
The Kremlin then said the order had come from Russia's commander-in-chief, president Boris Yeltsin, although individual military officers were in charge of the timing of the operation.
Talbott was keen to stress the most important thing now was for both sides to be unified in their approach.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I think that there will certainly be parts of Kosovo, where the Russian participation will be particularly important and manifest. But I want to stress again the importance of the unity of the command and put to put the same proposition in a cautionary and negative way. It's very important that we don't have an outcome which either looks like or is a partition of Kosovo."
SUPER CAPTION: Strobe Talbott, U-S Deputy Secretary of State
Russian foreign ministry spokesman Vladimir Rakhmanin said the tensions between the U-S and Russia over the sudden deployment of Moscow's peacekeepers would not harm relations in the long run.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
" The subject is the legalities and the possibilities of coordination between Russian and American military in the peacekeeping operation in Kosovo."
SUPER CAPTION: Vladimir Rakhmanin, Foreign Ministry Spokesman
Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov, head of Russia's military delegation, said a final decision on coordination between NATO and Russian contingents may only come on Tuesday.
SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
(On the possibility of Russia having area of responsibility in Kosovo): "We have exchanged our opinions with the American military.They will review our proposals and will give us an answer around Tuesday. Everything will depend on agreement. Of course we are planning deployment when we reach agreement about the deployment of a full contingent."
SUPER CAPTION: Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov
But, said Ivashov, Russia still had the right to deploy further units if it so desired.
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