Moscow pulls out of Russia-NATO Council meeting
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has dropped plans to attend a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council this month. The decision comes as a protest at NATO’s expulsion of Russian diplomats.
Russian Ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin today told media that NATO has been informed about the decision that Lavrov will not be attending the meeting, which was to be held on May 18 or 19. NATO said it regretted Russia’s decision and hoped a new date would soon be agreed for the talks, news agency Reuters reports.
Russia had already pulled out of a planned meeting among senior military staff on May 7 in protest at the NATO military exercises that are due to start in Georgia on May 6. A spy scandal resulting in the expulsion of two Russian diplomats has further exacerbated tensions. NATO headquarters in Brussels expelled the two men on Wednesday, the same day the military alliance held its first formal talks with Russia for eight months.
Belgian officials today said as NATO had stripped the diplomats of accreditation last week, they saw no reason for them to remain in the country, stressing however that it was not an issue of expulsion, but rather a loss of accreditation. Russia retaliated immediately by announcing it would not send delegates to a Russia-NATO Council meeting later in May, news agency RIA Novosti reports.
- Considering the persistence and stubbornness with which NATO plans to hold military drills in Georgia, and despite all the warnings and taking into account the crude move regarding our officials, the holding of a Russia-NATO Council ministerial session looks inappropriate, at least in the designated timeframe, Rogozin claimed. He said however that Moscow would not terminate diplomatic relations with NATO over the incident.
