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Disarmament DocumentationBack to Disarmament Documentation '[U]nconvincing are the arguments', Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Alexander Yakovenko on NATO enlargement and CFE, March 23'Alexander Yakovenko, the Spokesman of Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Answers a Russian Media Question Regarding the NATO Council's Decision to Provide the Territory of the Three Baltic States with Air Cover', March 23, 2004. Question: How can you comment on the report that the NATO Council has adopted a decision to provide air cover for the territory of the three Baltic states after their official accession to NATO, and that four NATO fighter planes will be stationed at an airfield in Lithuania for these purposes? Answer: We are analyzing this decision, primarily for ascertaining its conformance to the Russia-NATO Founding Act, the Adapted CFE Treaty documents and other obligations that the alliance's countries assumed. However one can already say the following. The talk is about plans to station a new military potential, including air force and air defense components in direct proximity to our borders. It is obvious that such plans directly affect the security interests of Russia. Let us put it bluntly, unconvincing are the arguments that all this is supposedly being done for protection from terrorists. It is regrettable that, in taking such a decision, the NATO nations were not guided by any real assessments of the military situation in this region, where direct security threats are nonexistent, including as a result of the unprecedented efforts for the reduction of arms levels, but by internal instructions of NATO for protecting its members. If the people in the alliance believe that there is a need for such protection, then Russia has a right to draw its conclusions from this and if necessary respond appropriately. But we would like to stress that the logic of the NATO actions hardly corresponds to the spirit and guidelines of Russia's current partnership with NATO after the Rome summit, aimed at reinforcing stability and enhancing predictability and mutual trust. By the way, the best way to this is not in the implementation of the plans of rearming, but in the earliest launching of the Adapted CFE Treaty and its being joined by Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Source: Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, http://www.russianembassy.org. © 2003 The Acronym Institute. |