NATO Restricts Belarusian Diplomat Access Concerning The Ryanair Forced Landing

JAKARTA - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) decided to restrict the access of Belarusian diplomatic missions at its headquarters, in connection with the forced landing of commercial aircraft by the Belarusian Government in Minsk.

This statement was issued by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Although not a member of NATO, Belarus has had relations with NATO since 1992 and has had a diplomatic mission since 1998.

This allows Belarusian personnel to attend seminars and meetings in NATO and in NATO countries as part of a cooperative partnership dealing with issues such as arms control and military education.

"We have decided to limit the access of Belarusian personnel to NATO headquarters", Stoltenberg said at a news conference ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign and defense ministers today, without providing further details.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called the incident "a state hijacking" and "outrageous".

It is known that the forced landing of a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius last May by Belarus to arrest dissident journalists, caused a number of Western countries to be inflamed.

However, a proposal to suspend Belarus from bilateral NATO cooperation, known as the Partnership for Peace, was not taken up by diplomats last week, after Turkey blocked the idea for fear of antagonizing Russia, Minsk's closest ally, diplomats said.

Earlier, NATO released a two-paragraph statement on Wednesday last week condemning Ryanair's forced landing to arrest journalist Roman Protasevich. However, the move does not include punitive measures that have been pressured by the Baltic allies and Poland.