BARVIKHA, Russia (AFP) – President Dmitry Medvedev stressed concern Saturday about NATO moves near Russia and called on the bloc to return to principles pledged with Moscow in 2002 to improve security across Europe.

“Certain things that are happening cannot but worry us,” Medvedev told a joint news conference alongside visiting Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, referring to activities like NATO's current exercises in Georgia.
Medvedev called on the alliance to return to the “principles that were agreed at the Pratica di Mare summit regarding mutual relations between Russia and NATO.”
Pratica di Mare is the seaside airbase outside Rome where Medvedev's predecessor Vladimir Putin and NATO leaders signed a summit agreement enhancing alliance coordination with Moscow through a new NATO-Russia Council.
That agreement, made in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States, was hailed at the time as big breakthrough and the start of a new era in cooperation among one-time Cold War foes against shared threats.
“Those were good principles and we should return to them in order to further promote dialogue between Russia and the Italian Republic, dialogue between Russia and the NATO states,” Medvedev said.
The Italian leader, who met Putin on Friday in the Russian Black Sea resort city of Sochi, echoed Medvedev's comments.
“As far as relations with NATO are concerned, we are hoping to return to those foundations which we refer to as the 'spirit of Pratica di Mare',” Berlusconi said, speaking through an interpreter.
In an interview broadcast on national television Saturday, Medvedev also said Russia would would push back on NATO expansion but provided no further details.
The Kremlin has sternly criticized NATO for forging ahead with exercises this month in the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia, saying such activity less than a year after Russia and Georgia fought a war was reckless and destabilizing.
Despite the war games and recent spy scandals that again soured Russian ties with the West, Medvedev indicated that Russia was still determined to turn the page on its fraught relations with the United States.
He lauded what he described as the “normal, positive dialogue” unfolding between Russia and the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama.
“So far, events are developing pretty well and I am awaiting my colleague in Russia to continue the dialogue,” he said.
0 Obama is scheduled to visit Russia July 6-8.
After his first face-to-face meeting with Obama in London on April 1, Medvedev called Obama “my new comrade” while Putin, now the tough-talking prime minister, said this week he would be pleased to meet the U.S. president.
Medvedev's meeting with Berlusconi on Saturday came a day after the Italian leader held talks with Putin in Sochi.
Putin and Berlusconi oversaw the signing of an agreement between Russian gas giant Gazprom and Italy's Eni to double the capacity of a key pipeline seen as a rival to the EU-led Nabucco pipeline project.
Berlusconi -- a rare ally of Moscow in Western Europe who has frequently defended Russia and flaunted his friendship with Putin -- said Friday that Russia was a “friendly” country that kept its promises as a gas supplier.
Saturday's talks between Berlusconi and Medvedev also focused on the upcoming G8 summit Italy will host in July, the Russian president said.
Russia intended again to raise ideas for making its national currency, the ruble, a global reserve unit, he said.
Among other ideas Russia would bring to the table at the summit focusing on the global economic crisis would be the Kremlin's proposal for a supra-national currency, Medvedev said.
Russia first floated the supra-national currency idea at the G20 summit last month in London, but the ideas have received a lukewarm response so far.