NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer warned outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview published Friday against the use of "unhelpful rhetoric" at next week's NATO summit in Romania.
Speaking to the Financial Times from Brussels, Scheffer said the success of the meeting of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) at the April 2-4 summit would depend largely on the tone that Putin, who will make way in May for his hand-picked successor Dmitry Medvedev, takes at the summit.
"Let's try to avoid unhelpful rhetoric, like 'We will target missiles on nations A, B and C'," Scheffer told the business daily.
"That is not only unhelpful but it makes me remember a time when I was growing up when there was a Berlin wall and an Iron Curtain ... So let us refrain from rhetoric."
He continued: "The volume of music we get next week will to a large extent depend on the tone that President Putin uses in the NRC. I do not know what that tone will be."
The NATO chief added that he had seen "hopeful, positive results" after US-Russia talks on American plans for a missile defence shield in eastern Europe.
He also said that he was unsurprised at how hard US President George W. Bush was pushing for Georgia and Ukraine to be granted NATO membership, which Russia has criticised.
"I know President Bush well, and I know he is committed to giving as many nations as possible the right to enjoy what he and I consider basic human values and to defend those values," Scheffer said.
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