Foreign Ministry: Deployment of US troops in Poland, Baltics is no violation of international agreements

24.04.201413:46

Belarus does not believe that the arrival of 600 US soldiers to participate in an exercise in Poland and the Baltic region constitutes a violation of international agreements, Dzmitry Mironchyk, spokesman for the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, said at Thursday’s briefing.

“In this specific case, we do not see a violation of existing international commitments, either multilateral or bilateral, including agreements on additional confidence and security building measures,” he said.

Mr Mironchyk said that Belarus is aware of the stated intention of Western countries to increase their military presence at the Belarusian border and hold joint exercises. “It is known that in a number of cases, such statements do not find support even among allies and are not put into practice,” he said. “And some of those that are being put into practice are primarily of a symbolic nature.”

Mr. Mironchyk noted that Belarus had already taken steps in response to the deployment of additional NATO aircraft to patrol the Belarusian border.

According to the Pentagon, the United States decided to send about 600 troops to Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia to underscore its commitment to NATO allies amid tensions with Russia over the crisis in Ukraine.