NATO: Russia and Belarus military exercise hasn’t contributed to building up confidence

• 25.11.2009, 13:17

The West is concerned not only by the scale of the Belarusian-Russian exercise, but also by the fact that foreign observers hadn’t been invited to them.

The military exercise Zapad-2009 (West-2009) does not contribute to building up relations between Russia and the NATO, the NATO spokesperson James Appathurai is convinced.

These exercises didn’t pose a threat to the NATO territory, but didn’t contribute to building up confidence either, he said on Tuesday during a TV link-up from Brussels, Interfax informs.

On November 19 James Appathurai already stated that recent Russian-Belarusian exercise caused concerns of the NATO. According to reports, at the press-conference in Brussels he said that the Zapad-2009 (war games were “the largest since the end of the Cold War.” He also said that the 28 NATO member states were displeased that Russia failed to invite observers to the exercises, which the alliance considers to be a violation of the Vienna accords.

According to the NATO representative, the military exercise involved approximately 13,000 Russian and Belarusian troops. They trained actions for holding off an attack from the West.

“There was the general sense that the political message of the exercise was incongruous with the general improvement in political relations and practical cooperation which is under way between NATO and Russia,” Appathurai said. He didn’t exclude that the NATO would discuss these exercises with the Russian side.

Meanwhile, commenting concerned reaction of a number of countries to joint exercise, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev stated in the conversation with Belarusian journalists on November 23L “If other countries hold drills, if drills are held in the framework of the NATO, we also should train certain military skills. There is nothing extraordinary in that”.

Medvedev noted that the sides plan to continue holding such drills and agreed with the president of Belarus that such drills would be held 2 times a year.