Russian and NATO efforts to rebuild relations in the aftermath of last year's Russia-Georgia war have received a fresh blow ahead of a three-week NATO-led military training exercise due to start in Georgia on May 6.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last week called on NATO to cancel the military training exercise in Georgia, saying "such actions are obviously aimed at muscle-flexing and at building up the military component at a time when the situation in the Caucasus is quite tense."
Medvedev called the trans-Atlantic alliance's decision "short-sighted and unpartner-like in the context of Russia-NATO relations."
But NATO denies that the NATO exercise is meant to intimidate and says it not involve heavy weaponry.
"It's not an exercise that is going to involve any heavy artillery -- no tanks and so on," NATO spokesman Robert Pszczel countered. "There will be, of course, some military equipment to do, for instance, with military evacuation, as part of a scenario, or some counterterrorism. There is also an element dealing with what we call CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear) protection against the possible use of weapons of mass destruction -- the types of scenarios that again need to be practiced during real-life operations."
Pszczel also stressed that the exercise in Georgia -- part of NATO's Partnership For Peace program -- had been planned long before the Russia-Georgia conflict, which saw Russian tanks roll through the breakaway republics of North Ossetia and Abkhazia but also well outside any disputed territory.
"Georgia has the same rights and responsibilities as a participant in the Partnership For Peace program," Pszczel said. "So they had made an offer a long time ago and that offer was accepted, and that's why those countries that decided to participate will, I am sure, be happy to take part. And, of course, in the future we will hold these exercises, this type of exercises, in many other places, perhaps in Russia..."
A total of 19 countries originally said they would participate in the Georgia exercise. They include Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Greece, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Serbia, Spain, Macedonia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Britain, and the United States.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last week called on NATO to cancel the military training exercise in Georgia, saying "such actions are obviously aimed at muscle-flexing and at building up the military component at a time when the situation in the Caucasus is quite tense."
Medvedev called the trans-Atlantic alliance's decision "short-sighted and unpartner-like in the context of Russia-NATO relations."
But NATO denies that the NATO exercise is meant to intimidate and says it not involve heavy weaponry.
"It's not an exercise that is going to involve any heavy artillery -- no tanks and so on," NATO spokesman Robert Pszczel countered. "There will be, of course, some military equipment to do, for instance, with military evacuation, as part of a scenario, or some counterterrorism. There is also an element dealing with what we call CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear) protection against the possible use of weapons of mass destruction -- the types of scenarios that again need to be practiced during real-life operations."
Pszczel also stressed that the exercise in Georgia -- part of NATO's Partnership For Peace program -- had been planned long before the Russia-Georgia conflict, which saw Russian tanks roll through the breakaway republics of North Ossetia and Abkhazia but also well outside any disputed territory.
"Georgia has the same rights and responsibilities as a participant in the Partnership For Peace program," Pszczel said. "So they had made an offer a long time ago and that offer was accepted, and that's why those countries that decided to participate will, I am sure, be happy to take part. And, of course, in the future we will hold these exercises, this type of exercises, in many other places, perhaps in Russia..."
A total of 19 countries originally said they would participate in the Georgia exercise. They include Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Greece, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Serbia, Spain, Macedonia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Britain, and the United States.
