BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

28/08/2007

Russian diplomat backs off from "new nukes in Belarus" statement

Minsk (dpa) - A senior Russian diplomat on Tuesday backed off from remarks seeming to threaten a return of Moscow's nuclear weapons to Belarus, the Interfax news agency reported.

"My comments were misinterpreted," Aleksander Surikov, Russian ambassador to Belarus, said at a Minsk press conference.

Surikov had been responding to the media firestorm he touched off on Monday by declaring Russia might again base nuclear weapons in bases in Belarus, as a response to plans by the United States for an anti-missile defence system in East Europe.

"Russia has no plans to place nuclear devices on Belarusian territory," Surikov said. "And I have seen news reports quoting me as saying the weapons already were in route... this has nothing to do with the truth."

Surikov in remarks Tuesday suggested Russia could construct new military bases to house nuclear devices and their delivery systems in Belarus as retaliation to the planned US anti-missile network. Moscow argues that the US plans pose a threat to international security by giving Washington the ability to shoot down Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The nuclear weapons if deployed to Belarus would mark a major break-down of force limitation agreements signed between Moscow and NATO during the 1990s, and almost certainly place a massive burden on tight NATO nation military budgets currently focused on operations in Afghanistan and the Balkans.

White House officials have repeatedly argued the anti-missile system would be aimed not at Russia but at Iran, whose government the US believes to be developing a nuclear strike capacity.

The Russian army currently maintains early-warning radar installations, and other listening posts, in Belarusian territory.

Aleskander Lukashenko, Belarus' authoritarian leader, earlier this year threatened to kick Russia out of the bases, or to hike rental rates to international standards, to retaliate against Moscow's policy of steadily increasing the prices of natural gas and oil exported to Belarus.

Lukashenko has criticised the US missile plan harshly, saying the system would pose a direct threat to Belarusian national security.

Russia removed Cold War era nuclear weapons from Belarusian territory during the 1990s. Lukashenko has said he wants his country to remain nuclear weapon-free, but that if necessary Belarus possesses the technical skill to build such devices itself.

Source:

http://www.eux.tv/article.aspx?articleId=13451