Russia Concerned at NATO Influence in Baltic States

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, June 02, 2003

Russia Concerned at NATO Influence in Baltic States

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Russia said on Sunday that it will urge NATO not to put its weapons and troops on the territories of the three Baltic states which are to become formal members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) soon.

"We continue to make clear to NATO our concerns about the possible military consequences of the NATO expansion," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said when talking about theministerial meeting of the Russia-NATO Council to be held in Madrid, Spain on June 3-4.

"In our dialogue with NATO, we firmly intend to raise the question of clear guarantees that no foreign weapons and troops will be placed on the territory of the Baltic states," he told reporters.

"We are taking into account the statements made by the top political leaders of some of the NATO countries, and also the Baltic states, on their adherence to the principles of military restraint," he said.

"We expect our partners to make practical steps to launch the process of ratification of the adopted Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe," Yakovenko said, referring to the United States and the agreement signed between the United States and Russia.

The three Baltic countries are Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. All three are former Soviet republics but are scheduled to become NATO members in the near future.

Moscow has repeatedly voiced its security concerns about NATO'seastward expansion in Europe, especially the alliance's possible military presence in the former Soviet republics.

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