Russia using loopholes to minimize number of NATO observers at Zapad-2017 - Stoltenberg
Russia and Belarus have failed to meet their international obligations to provide the absolute transparency of the joint war game Zapad-2017, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday.
Russia is using loopholes in order to minimize the number of NATO observers during the exercise, he told Associated Press on August, 24.
Belarus invited NATO to send two observers to the Belarusian-Russian exercises. It is not enough, Stoltenberg stressed.
According to the top official, Belarus said the alliance could attend five distinguished visitor days during the war games while Russia invited NATO to one such visitors’ day but the alliance is still studying the offer.
Jens Stoltenberg states that NATO routinely invites Russia to watch its war games as a confidence-building measure, but notes that ‘Russia has never, since the end of the Cold War, invited any NATO ally to observe any of their exercises’.
Earlier this week, the Belarusian Defense Ministry reported that observers from seven countries had been invited to monitor the Zapad 2017 military exercise.
The Belarusian-Russian strategic army exercise Zapad-2017 scheduled for September, 14-20 is supposed to demonstrate ‘persistence in efforts to ensure security of the two brotherly nations’. Such exercises are held in Belarus and Russia interchangeably every two years. In September, there will be about 10,000 troops involved in the exercise in the Belarusian territory (7,200 – the Belarusian Armed Forces and about 3,000 – the Russian Army).
At the same time, Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite and a number of European politicians believe that the ‘West-2017’ demonstrates the preparation of Belarus and Russia to the war with the West. In mid April, Oleksandr Turchynov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, stressed that the joint military exercise might become the preparation for an assault against Ukraine in September. In turn, Belarusian democratic circles fear that Russian troops will not come back home after the war game.
- Zapad-2017 military game in the offing: Should Belarusians be wary?
- More U.S. fighter planes, troops in Lithuania during Belarus-Russia war game – Grybauskaite
- Ukraine aware of threat of Russia’s possible attack during Zapad-2017 war game – MoD
According to the Belarusian leader, the exercise will be ‘open and transparent’. In March, Lukashenka expressed readiness to invite NATO observers so that they could make sure of the truth of his statement.
In June, president Alyaksandr Lukashenka said that the joint Belarusian-Russian war game was not aimed at invading other countries’ territories.
belsat.eu
