Russia warns Nato again
2004-03-25 15:52
Moscow - Russia's defence minister on Thursday repeated his earlier warning to Nato that he may order a build-up of the country's nuclear defences should the US-led alliance continue to expand and take an unfriendly view of Moscow.
Sergei Ivanov said the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) was following an aggressive strategy and treating Russia as a threat rather than a partner.
"If Nato continues to keep to its offensive military doctrine, then Russia's military planning and the principles of Russia's military procurement - including in the nuclear sphere - will be adequately re-evaluated," the Interfax quoted Ivanov as saying.
"Russia is carefully observing the process of Nato's transformation," said Ivanov, who is seen as one of President Vladimir Putin's closest political allies in government.
He said that that some new Nato members both "directly and indirectly" display anti-Russian policies.
Russia and Nato have recently come to blows over the alliance's plans to station warplanes in the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
All are due to formally join Nato on April 2. Russia had spent years futilely trying to avert the expansion up to its borders and is growing increasingly concerned that the warplanes stationed in the Baltics will be spying on its defences.
Ivanov's comments on Thursday are almost exactly the same he made on October 2 in remarks that first startled Western nations.
Russia and the United States signed a nuclear disarmament treaty in May 2002 aimed at slashing the size of the two country's "operationally deployed" arsenals by two-thirds over 10 years - a deal aimed at sealing a new friendship between the two Cold War era foes.
But a senior US administration official said in Washington this week that the United States may use a loophole in the treaty to keep an unlimited number of warheads in storage.
And Ivanov has made repeated comments in recent months suggesting that Russia could be ready to re-evaluate its own stance on that deal.
"Should Nato remain a military alliance with its current offensive military strategy, this will prompt a fundamental reassessment of Russia's military planning and arms procurement," said an internal document released by Russia's defence ministry in October.
- SAPA