Russia denies it plans military presence in Serbia
By DUSAN STOJANOVIC
Associated Press
2010-02-17 11:08 PM
Russia's minister for emergency situations said Wednesday his country does not
plan to set up a military base in Serbia that could spy on a planned U.S.
missile shield to be deployed in neighboring countries.
Sergey Shoigu said such reports in Serbian and foreign media are "complete
nonsense."
The reports began in October when it was announced during Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev's visit that the Kremlin and Belgrade had agreed to form a
joint "emergency response center" at an airport in the central Serbian city of
Nis.
Shoigu said the center will house emergency relief experts and their equipment,
and is intended to fight major forest fires, flooding, earthquakes and other
natural disasters. He said the center will offer emergency relief aid
throughout the Balkans.
But, some military experts have said the base would be ideally located to spy
on neighboring Romania and Bulgaria, where an U.S. anti-ballistic missile
interceptors are likely to be installed as part of the revamped U.S. missile
shield. It could also serve as an observation post for NATO activities in
neighboring Kosovo.
That would be Kremlin's first military base since the end of the cold war in
Europe, and could represent a response to NATO's rapid expansion in the Balkan
region. It would also mean that Serbia _ which was never a member of any
military alliance _ would breach its declared military neutrality.
Fueling the media speculation was an announcement that the center will be run
by Russia's powerful ministry for emergency situations, an organization that
includes parts of the country's armed security services.
"I am inviting everybody, this will not be a closed object, it will be a fully
open location, a humanitarian center," Shoigu said. "Whoever has any doubts can
come and check, but it would be good if they would apologize once they take a
look."
Officials at NATO headquarters in Brussels said they were unaware of any plans
to build an emergency response center by Serbia or Russia. But as members of
the alliance's outreach Partnership for Peace (PfP) program, both countries had
the right to cooperate in disaster relief and other emergency response, they
said.
"We welcome member nations collaborating on such measures, which are part and
parcel of the PfP program," said an official who could not be identified
according to standing regulations.
___
Associated Press writers Jovana Gec in Belgrade and Slobodan Lekic in Brussels
contributed to this report.
http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1182902&lang=eng_news
