NATO is concerned over the recent Russian-Belarusian large-scale military drills "Zapad (West) 2009", said on Wednesday NATO spokesman James Appathurai.
As he said, the NATO Council at the ambassadorial level of 28 member countries of the Alliance at a meeting in Brussels on Thursday, in particular, has expressed a concern about the extent of the exercises, which "were the largest since the end of the "Cold War", as well as the fact that Russia did not invite observers to the maneuvers which is being seen by NATO as a violation of the Vienna obligations".
Vienna Document ("On measures to reduce the military danger and confidence building in Europe"), to which Appathurai referred, in 1999, signed by 55 state-participants of OSCE. This document provides for exchange of information on conducting large-scale military exercises.
In addition, Appathurai said that the NATO allies have also expressed concern regarding the fact that the scenario of Russian-Belarusian doctrines anticipated the attack on Russia from the West.
NATO will continue to discuss these exercises and their possible impact on NATO-Russia relations, which are at an improvement stage, said Appathurai. He did not rule out that the Alliance may seek additional clarification on the doctrines from Russia's side.
We would like to recall that the exercises have raised concerns of a number of neighboring countries of Russia and Belarus. Thus, the Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski urged NATO to draw attention to the military exercises of Belarus and Russia near the Polish border. Sikorski has also said that he wrote about this in a letter to NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
In addition, Sikorski urged the US to deploy US armed forces in Poland for protection against "Russian aggression".
Latvian Minister of Defense told reporters that Russia and Belarus has staged an attack on the Baltic States, that is on the states that are members of NATO.
In the summer of next year, Latvia will hold on its territory a large scale military exercises, which will be a response to Russan-Belarusian doctrines Zapad-2009 took place in September of this year, said Republican television channel TV3, with reference to the Minister of Defense of the Baltic republics Imants Legis.
In turn, the Estonian President Hendrik Ilves urged the West to be careful with respect to the actions of Russia. He proposed to conduct a ground exercise of NATO troops in the same region.
Department of Monitoring,
Kavkaz Center
