BRUSSELS. April 4 (Interfax) - NATO apparently has no near-term plans to deploy large forces in Eastern Europe on a permanent basis in response to the Ukrainian events.
"In the Founding Act, NATO promised to carry out our collective defense through reinforcement rather than additional permanent stationing of substantive combat forces. And that is exactly what we are doing," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a news conference when asked to comment on Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's statement that NATO has plans to build-up military presence in Eastern Europe.
Russia is expecting explanations from NATO regarding the consistency of its mounting activity in East European countries with Russia-NATO legal documents, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier on Thursday.
"We have posed these questions to the North Atlantic Alliance. We are expecting not just any answer but an answer fully respectful of the rules we have coordinated," Lavrov said at a news conference following negotiations with his Kazakh counterpart Yerlan Idrisov.
"Speaking of plans to build up a NATO military presence on territories of its East European member states, we naturally proceed from the premise that certain rules exist in Russia-NATO relations, including the Rome Declaration and the Russia-NATO Founding Act, according to which there must be no permanent presence of additional forces on the territories of East European states," Lavrov said.
Meanwhile, Rasmussen said he personally had not received Lavrov's request for explanations regarding mounting NATO activities in Eastern Europe.
As to Russia's allegations about NATO's possible violation of agreements with Russia, Rasmussen said that such accusations are just propaganda and misinformation and it should be emphasized that NATO acts in accordance with the existing agreements.
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