MOSCOW. Feb 5 (Interfax-AVN) - Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov will depart for Munich on Friday to attend an international security conference, the Defense Ministry press service told Interfax-Military News Agency.
During the conference, set for Saturday and Sunday, speeches will be given by officials from NATO, the European Union and several defense ministers, including Ivanov. They will address a broad range of issues pertaining to crisis settlement and elaboration of common approaches to regional and global security issues.
"Ivanov is planning to deliver a report entitled 'Security Policy Issues in the Context of Russian-NATO Relations," the press service said.
Ivanov will hold meetings with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and German Defense Minister Peter Struck.
A high-ranking Defense Ministry official told Interfax- Military News Agency that Ivanov intends to voice Russia's concern over by the prospect of gray zones forming as a result of further NATO enlargement to the East that are not controlled by the OSCE.
"From a legal point of view, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia may host a major NATO military base on their territory at any time," the official said referring to the coming admission of seven East European countries to NATO, four of which are not signatories to the CFE treaty.
"We want to make sure that Russia will not be surrounded by NATO bases as a result of the Alliance's eastward enlargement," he said.
"Russia could show understanding for the appearance of NATO bases in Bulgaria or Romania, but the formation of such facilities in Poland, Slovakia or the Baltic states is absolutely senseless in terms of international anti-terrorist efforts," the official said.
"Russia holds a similar approach to NATO and U.S. military facilities in CIS countries, which it regards as an exclusive zone concerning its national security interests," he said.
"Any military presence of third countries on the CIS territory will raise our reasonable concern. It would be impossible to explain such actions by the necessity to combat international terrorism," the official concluded.
The CFE Treaty was signed in 1990 on the initiative of the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe (now Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) and was revised in 1999. It limits the number of five conventional types of armaments, namely tanks, APCs, artillery, warplanes and helicopters, stationed in European regions.
The Soviet Union was among the 24 countries that signed the treaty. Originally it was a closed document, but after revision, it was suggested for signing to other countries.