• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

.................

QUESTION: (Inaudible.) How concerned is the US about Russia allegedly violating the air space in Iceland and Norway; and what does this Administration think that the Russians are up to?

MR. FOLEY: Well, in point of fact, our information is that the Russian aircraft did not violate any national air space - either Iceland's or Norway's, in point of fact. This exercise was called Zapad 99. It was a regularly scheduled exercise. There have been number of similarly large exercises by the Russian military since the break-up of the Soviet Union. It was primarily command post exercise involving commanders and their staffs from several military districts and fleets. It did feature maneuvers by some troops and equipment and the live fire of missiles.

In terms of the specific elements of the exercise you're talking about, according to the Russian press, four strategic bombers conducted missions outside of Russia; two operated near the coast of Norway, and two flew out over the Atlantic in the vicinity of Iceland. According to the Russian press, cruise missiles were fired over Russian target ranges, I think after two of the aircraft broke off, returning to Russia, and fired cruise missiles on Russian soil, and simulated launches were carried out during the flights. Again, as I said, the aircraft did not violate the air space of any nation.

QUESTION: Just to follow up, if I could. So no concern on the part of the US? The US doesn't view this as any kind of muscle-flexing, or any kind of move on the part of the Russians to show some -

MR. FOLEY: No. First of all, our understanding is that it was scheduled previously. So the speculation in the press that it had something to do with Kosovo, we believe, is unfounded. Secondly, although I said that they conducted similar exercises since the break-up of the Soviet Union, the fact is they haven't conducted many of them. I believe there are constraints that they are operating under, so it may seem significant simply because they don't do many of these exercises or haven't in recent years. But I've talked also to colleagues at the Pentagon, and they don't believe that this was anything other than a previously scheduled exercise.

QUESTION: Just finally, any communication that's gone on about this between US and Russian Governments?

MR. FOLEY: I'm not aware of any, no.

QUESTION: Are there plans to have --

MR. FOLEY: Not to my knowledge.

QUESTION: Was the United States informed of this in advance?

MR. FOLEY: Not to my knowledge. I believe that --

QUESTION: Should the United States have been informed in advance, given the CFE transparency?

MR. FOLEY: Well, I've looked into the matter under START I, what the requirements are. What I can tell you, START I requires states party to notify the absence of a strategic bomber from its territory for a period of 30 days or longer. So, obviously, that was not the case under START I.

The treaty also requires state parties to notify each other of a major strategic exercise each year. The Russians did not provide advance notification that this was a major strategic exercise, as understood under the definition in the START treaty. Apparently, they've not described it as such and so we don't have the basis to conclude that this was not in conformity with the START treaty.

QUESTION: But do you think this should have - do you think this was a major exercise; would you have considered this a major exercise?

MR. FOLEY: Well, I was told - I asked the question, knowing that you were going to ask me the question - that that's something that we can't assess today; that this, in some way, becomes a year-end assessment, when we see what exercises have or have not been notified. So I don't believe we have made an assessment of that to this point. I can take the question and see.

QUESTION: Were you surprised at all? Was the United States Government at least going to acknowledge that you were surprised that they strayed so far?

MR. FOLEY: Well, again, this was a regularly scheduled exercise. I believe, therefore, we understood there was going to be an exercise taking place. But I can check that for you.

QUESTION: But to understand there's going to be an exercise taking place and to know the actual parameters of that exercise are two different things. You're not saying that you just assumed that they would have strayed close to Norway or to Iceland. You're not saying that that --

MR. FOLEY: I'm not saying that we knew every operational detail or aspect of the exercise as it was going to unfold. My understanding, because it was a regularly scheduled exercise, is that we were aware that it was going to take place.

.................

[end of document]