MFA: NATO-Russia deal should be scrapped
15:27
Witold Waszczykowski, Poland's Minister of Foreign Affairs, said in an interview with Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza that Poland wants NATO to scrap its 1997 deal with Russia, as "it was a political agreement and not legally binding, struck in a different international context."
Waszczykowski argued that the deal causes "inequality" between older and new alliance members. "We demand an equal level of security," he said.
The 1997 Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security between NATO and Russia says that they "have no intention, no plan and no reason to deploy nuclear weapons on the territory of new members". Russia has for a long time insisted that the deal also encompasses a ban on setting-up permanent NATO bases on the eastern flank.
