---

NATO Summit

My Lords, as the noble Lord, Lord Garden, said, the venue in this case was very significant. Fifteen years ago, Riga was within the Soviet Union; it has a large Russian minority, including many retired Soviet military. Given the proximity to Russia and the failure of President Putin to attend, was there any attempt to have a stocktaking of the success or otherwise of the NATO-Russia agreement? As I understand it, there has been some significant technical interchange in terms of air-sea rescue and attendance at manoeuvres, and so on, but there seems very little life left in the agreement. Was there any attempt at the summit to look at the current relationship with Russia? Relevant to that is the alleged attempt by Russia to have regime change in Georgia. Given the enlargement perspectives in respect of Ukraine and Georgia, was there any attempt to consider expressions of solidarity with Georgia or to enhance NATO’s relationship with Georgia?