Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen's staff keep the United States informed on his upcoming moves and Washington has used the information to counter some of his initiatives, leaked cables showed Friday.
At the end of 2009, the United States was able to dissuade the Dane from suggesting increased co-operation between Nato and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) which counts Russia and former Soviet republics as members, the Aftenposten daily reported.
Washington anticipated Rasmussen's upcoming suggestion partly because a letter he had sent to his CSTO counterpart was leaked to the US embassy to Nato by a member of Rasmussen's cabinet, a diplomatic note from September 10, 2009 reads.
"In your speech at the Carnegie Europe Center on September 18, we strongly urge you not to get ahead of Allies' deliberations by announcing new Nato-Russia initiatives that have yet to be formally considered by the Alliance," the US State Department warned Rasmussen, a note dated September 15 showed.
According to Aftenposten, another note gives weight to the idea that the United States had sources within the Nato secretary-general's office.
On his way back from a trip to Moscow in December 2009, Rasmussen had said he was pleased by Russia's willingness to enter into closer co-operation with Nato. But a note dated January 6, 2010 quoted "a usually reliable source" as saying Rasmussen's meeting with the Russian leadership went very differently.
"The source reported that while Russian President (Dmitry) Medvedev was polite, neither he nor PM (Vladimir) Putin had expressed any real interest in co-operating with Nato," the note said.
"Putin allegedly told Rasmussen that Nato no longer has a purpose and it was in Russia's interest that Nato no longer exist," it continued.
Another note however shows that what the United States could obtain from its source or sources was rather limited.
Dated October 2009, it described Rasmussen's unveiling of a Middle East peace plan of his own at a conference in Abu Dhabi as "a bombshell."
"None of the Nato Ambassadors or Missions had any advance warning of the statement. Many reacted with incredulity to his statement," the note read. The Norwegian newspaper of reference late last year obtained all of the 250,000 secret diplomatic cables obtained by the WikiLeaks organisation.