Russia's envoy to NATO said Monday the NATO-Russia meeting between military officers may be canceled if the alliance continued to hold drills in Georgia, the Interfax news agency reported.
"If there is no response (to Russia's protests against the exercises), we will take certain steps," said Russia's envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin." The NATO-Russia meeting of chiefs of General Staff slated for May 7 is not going to happen."
"For Russia, Georgia and the whole world, this sort of military jamborees are a sheer provocation," Rogozin said.
The envoy said this is why Russia asked NATO to cancel or postpone the exercises scheduled between May 6 and June 1.
Meanwhile, the NATO-Russia Council meeting at level of ambassadors slated for April 29 will go on as planned, he added.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Friday the alliance's decision to hold drills in Georgia is shortsighted, and Russia will closely watch the exercises and act accordingly.
"Such decisions are disappointing and by no means contribute to the resumption of full-fledged contacts between Russia and NATO," he said.
Nineteen countries, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Serbia, Britain and the United States, plan to participate in the exercises under NATO's Partnership for Peace program, designed to improve the interoperability between the organization and its partner countries.
However, Kazakhstan will probably pull out of the exercises after Russia voiced strong protest against them, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Monday citing a source in the country's Defense Ministry.
(Xinhua News Agency April 21, 2009)
