BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

04/02/2009

Russia, Belarus Sign Air Defense Pact: Report

By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

MOSCOW - Russia and its western neighbor Belarus on Feb. 3 signed an agreement to create a joint air defense system, Russian news agencies reported.

No further details of the agreement - signed after talks between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Belarussian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko - were immediately available.

But the RIA Novosti news agency quoted a Kremlin source as saying it was a "meaningful step in the development of Russian-Belarussian military cooperation".

The accord will "increase the defense capabilities of both countries," the source added.

Belarus remains one of post-Soviet Russia's closest allies, and both countries have viewed the eastwards expansion of the Western military alliance NATO with the greatest suspicion.

Russia had threatened to place missiles in its western exclave of Kaliningrad if the United States pressed ahead with its plans for a missile defense shield in new NATO members the Czech Republic and Poland.

However, last week a Russian news agency quoted a top military source as saying the Russian plan had been shelved as it appeared the administration of President Barack Obama was less enthusiastic about the U.S. missile shield.

In a further indication of the close ties between the sides, Russian presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko was quoted as saying that Moscow was considering extending a new loan worth tens of billions of dollars to Minsk.

Source:

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=3930765&c=EUR&s=POL

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