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OTTAWA: Canada on Wednesday decried Russia's move to expel two Canadian NATO diplomats as "unjustifiable," and has summoned Russia's ambassador for an explanation.
"We're a little concerned, greatly concerned, I should say," Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon told reporters.
A Cannon spokeswoman added: "Canada strongly objects to Russia's unjustifiable decision to expel two Canadians serving at the NATO Information Office in Moscow."
"Canada and NATO allies have been seeking ways to re-engage Russia. Russia's decision to expel NATO officials is counter-productive to this effort," the spokeswoman said.
Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in Prague for talks with European leaders, called on Russia to act in a more acceptable manner while assuring that a row over diplomatic expulsions was "not a Cold War" situation.
"We are concerned about Russia's behaviour on a number of fronts," said Harper, citing democracy, spying and human rights as areas which required dialogue.
"We will continue facing those difficulties. In reality, it is not a Cold War, but it's not the ideal relationship either," he told journalists at a press conference with outgoing Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek and EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso.
"We would like Russia to behave in a more acceptable manner," he added.
Russia's expulsion, announced earlier on Wednesday, of two Canadian diplomats posted at NATO's Moscow office came after the alliance expelled two Russian envoys at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
"We were forced to react," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow. "Those who initiated the expulsion of our diplomats couldn't have expected anything less from us," he told journalists.
After a meeting with Russia's envoy, Cannon later said the ousters were directed at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, not Canada.
"The Russians indicated to us that it's not against Canada, but fundamentally it's a retaliation against NATO," he told public broadcaster CBC.
"It just happened that the two (NATO) information officers are Canadian," he said.
The tit-for-tat expulsions are the latest development in rapidly deteriorating relations between NATO and Russia, after a brief, hopeful recent thaw.
The expulsions of the Russians followed a long-running spy scandal in which former Estonian defence ministry official Herman Simm was arrested last year, following suggestions NATO secrets may have been leaked to Russia.
Simm pleaded guilty to treason and was sentenced in February to 12 years and six months in prison.
- AFP/so
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