BRUSSELS, June 13 (UPI) -- NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer tried to calm fears Thursday that the alliance is planning to build military bases in Ukraine.
Scheffer said NATO does not have designs on building military bases in Ukraine or plans to interfere with any post-Soviet conflicts. Critics in Ukraine had voiced concern about NATO building a military base in Crimea, an autonomous republic in southern Ukraine. Scheffer denied any plans for such a base, calling the notion a myth, the Ukraine government reported.
Officials say Scheffer emphasized NATO's plans to keep a distance and not interfere with any discussions on the future of the Black Sea Fleet between Ukraine and Russia, but Scheffer did voice concerns about the deployment of Russian railway troops in Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia.
"Unlike the United Nations or the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, NATO has no direct mandate to interference with the conflict, and it will not do so, as it is a military-political organization seeking no direct interference either with Georgia or Ukraine," Scheffer said in a statement.
