Belarus is to bar flights by US and Canadian airlines over its
territory in response to both countries' ban on the Belarussian
prime minister's flight to Cuba last month, Foreign Ministry
spokesman said in Minsk on Thursday.
The move was suggested by President Alexander Lukashenko this
week, who has also been banned from entering the United States and
European Union following his re-election.
"Belarus, in its response, follows the principles of symmetry,"
Andrei Popov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying while
commenting on Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko's Tuesday
address to the nation and parliament.
"The Belarussian aviation authorities are prepared to limit US
and Canadian planes' transit flights over Belarus, as the
government demands," the Belarussian State Aviation Committee said
earlier.
Lukashenko said in his annual message to parliament on Tuesday
"who has given anybody the right to restrict your travel or the
travel of the prime minister, who had nothing to do with
presidential elections at all?"
"I issued an instruction to the government ... let them fly over
the Baltic states and Ukraine but the main route must be blocked.
We may lose something, but we should show them our dignity," he
said.
The Aviation Committee estimated that the ensuing loss would be
no more than US$200,000 annually, which is the duty charged to US
and Canadian airlines for the transit.
Meanwhile, a Belarussian air services market expert said the
response would not threaten the state.
?
"Belarussian planes practically don't fly over the U.S and Canada.
The other countries would be happy to benefit from Belarussian
planes' flights and would not respond overly emotionally to the
decision to close Belarussian skies to the US and Canada," the
expert said.
(Xinhua News Agency May 26, 2006)
