The Associated Press
Tuesday, Nov. 2, 1999; 12:54 p.m. EST

MOSCOW –– Russia is seriously concerned about comments by Hungary's prime minister that the new NATO member would be willing to have nuclear missiles on its territory, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told Canada's The Globe and Mail newspaper last month that NATO, which Hungary joined in March, needs nuclear weapons "because of uncertainties about the future of Russia."

He added that Hungary would be willing to have nuclear weapons deployed there in a crisis.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vladimir Rakhmanin said Tuesday that the remarks were "a direct violation of the Russia-NATO Founding Act, in which NATO countries confirmed that they had no intentions, plans or causes to deploy weapons in the territories of new members."

NATO said before its latest expansion that it would not deploy nuclear missiles in new members, but the Founding Act does not rule it out.

Russia has long been vehemently opposed to NATO expansion, seeing it as a major threat to its security.

Rakhmanin said that Orban's remarks called into question numerous assurances from Hungary that its admission into NATO did not threaten Russian security interests.

The comments "directly confirm Russia's concerns relating to NATO enlargement," Rakhmanin said, adding that NATO should "duly respond to the (comments) of Mr. Orban."

A spokesman at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Francois Leblennec, said Tuesday that although Hungary can in principle deploy nuclear missiles, the current strategic balance in Europe makes that unnecessary.

Orban was quoted as saying in Tuesday's editions of the Hungarian newspaper Napi Magyarorszag: "There is no crisis situation at the present that would justify such a request and the topic only arose because in Canada there is a debate about the future of NATO's nuclear arsenal."

Rakhmanin also criticized Orban for telling The Globe and Mail that Ukraine should never become a part of Russia or join an alliance with Russia and Belarus because Hungary doesn't want to border such a coalition.

The remarks are "totally inappropriate and incorrect and, linked with the deployment of nuclear arms, simply dangerous," Rakhmanin said.