BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
21/02/2008
Belarus Softens Position Over NATO Expansion
Reuters
Belarus has offered to work together with its traditional ally Russia to counter the proposed system.
Ex-Soviet Belarus appeared to soften its position on NATO's eastward expansion on Thursday when its defence minister said he saw no threat from the alliance.
President Alexander Lukashenko, a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy, has long said NATO's two recent waves of expansion to include adjacent Poland, Latvia and Lithuania threatened Belarus's security.
But Defence Minister Leonid Maltsev said he believed the proximity of the alliance posed no military threat to the country of 10 million.
"No one is saying there is a military threat. There is no military threat. Our military doctrine lists no one as a likely enemy for Belarus," Maltsev, quoted by local media, told a news conference.
"If we are talking about a military danger, this has risen, of course. The task to be undertaken by any state is to do everything to ensure it does not turn into a military threat."
Maltsev restated Belarus's objection to the proposed deployment of a U.S. missile defence shield in eastern Europe. He said it would "destroy a balance created through such tenacious efforts".
Belarus has offered to work together with its traditional ally Russia to counter the proposed system.
Russia objects to any notion of ex-Soviet states like Ukraine and Georgia joining NATO. It has said it would have to take "appropriate measures" or even redirect its missiles if those countries hosted the U.S. system.
After Lukashenko quarrelled last year with Russia over energy prices, Belarus called for improved ties with the West, which demanded in exchange changes in what it regards as a poor human rights record.
In recent months, Belarussian courts have ordered the early release of several opposition activists described in the West as political prisoners.
The president has toned down criticism of the European Union which has cautiously praised Minsk for the release of detainees and restraint in dealing with opposition rallies.
Source:
http://www.javno.com/en/world/clanak.php?id=125622
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