Russian Diplomat Urges NATO to Revise Defense Plan For Baltic States
BRUSSELS. Dec 8 (Interfax) - A NATO defense plan for the Baltic countries against Russia, which the alliance apparently devised at the beginning of 2010, is a mistake and should be revised, Russian permanent envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin told Interfax on Tuesday.
"We took note quite long ago that information on the existence of such plans had been leaked to the media. In particular, the first report on this was in some Polish newspaper. Now we have learned through WikiLeaks that such plans do exist and that they were devised in early 2010," Rogozin said.
"Now there is information on the web about who was behind these plans and what they presumed, that is, the picture is quite bright and, naturally, it inevitably evokes some questions on our part," he said.
"The NATO official spokesman's explanation that defense plans for the allied countries is a routine affair cannot persuade Russia, because we wonder against whom the Baltic states should be defended," he said.
"After all, the enemy in such situations should be not simulated, because the matter implies not a simulated plan but quite a real one. If it is implied that the Baltic states or Poland could be attacked by neutral Sweden or Finland, this can't be taken seriously. If polar bears, this can't be accepted, either. It is absolutely obvious that it is the Russian Federation that should figure in the plans. We have obtained confirmation from WikiLeaks that it was the Russian Federation that was implied. Therefore, it's becoming clear that NATO is going to defend the Baltic states from none other than its strategic partner, if the statements made at the Lisbon summit on November 20 were serious," he said.
Rogozin said he intended to ask his counterparts from the NATO member states to confirm or deny the existence of such a plan at a NATO-Russia Council ambassadorial meeting on Wednesday.
"The second thing I would like to know, if this plan does exist, which I don't doubt, is whether NATO is going to revise it in light of the documents that were adopted recently at the Russia-NATO Council summit in Lisbon, at which the alliance said it is not a threat to Russia and that it would seek strategic partnership with my country," Rogozin said.
"If this is so, we will insist that the Lisbon summit conclusions should lead to amending the plans that portray the Russian Federation as a potential aggressor," he said.
"Neither me nor my leadership can like this kind of story. It can't evoke feelings other than vexation and other feelings, of which I wouldn't like to talk," he said.
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