Lithuania’s Defense Ministry: In political sense an aviation base in Lida is an unneighbourly step

The creation of a Russian aviation base in the Belarusian town of Lida not far from Lithuanian border is not a demonstration of a good will on the part of Russia and Belarus in political sense, they claim at the Ministry of Defense of Lithuania.

As they told the news agency BNS at the Defense Ministry on Thursday, Vilnius knows about Moscow’s plans to deploy an aviation base in Belarus, which borders on NATO member-states. According to the defense agency’s information, the planes of Belarusian air forces were constantly stationed at the base, and Russian planes could fly in and stay for indefinite time, Interfax reports.

“This is why it does not create an additional threat in military sense. In political sense this, of course, is a demonstration of mutual trust and good-neighbourly will neither on the part of Russia, nor on the part of Belarus”, - Lithuania Defense Ministry’s response to BNS states.

“The Defense Ministry believes that Belarus is not an enemy state, that it is an independent country and has the right to independently decide whether to allow or not the deployment of other country’s military bases in its territory”, - they claim at Lithuania’s Defense Ministry.

It was the commander in chief of Russia’s air forces a lieutenant general Viktor Bondarev, who reported on Wednesday of the creation of a Russian aviation base in Lida.

“The creation of a Russian aviation base in Belarus is a result of the implementation of an intergovernmental agreement on strengthening the military component of the Union State, which me are obliged to follow. As a participant of the Union State Russia is obliged to deploy and have its own aviation base there”, - the general told journalists.

Answering to the question of whether the aviation base will solely be Russia’s or joint Russian-Belarusian, general Bondarev stated: “At first it will be Russia’s, and then we will see”.

Photo: ITAR-TASS