NATO LIMITS ACCESS OF BELARUS OFFICIALS TO ITS BRUSSELS HQ

NATO will strictly control access to its headquarters in the Belgian capital for Belarusian officials, according to the alliance's secretary-general, in the wake of a forced Ryanair flight diversion that stoked international outrage, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

"We have decided to restrict the access of Belarusian personnel to the NATO headquarters based on our assessment of security measures," defense alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Monday.

The decision comes after the forced rerouting to Minsk of a passenger jet traveling between two NATO member countries - Greece and Lithuania - earlier this month in order to detain a dissident Belarusian journalist and his girlfriend.

NATO's 30 member states condemned the move and called for the immediate release of Roman Protasevich and Sofia Sapega in a joint statement last week.

Minsk's envoy in Brussels is Aleksandr Mikhnevich, who represents the former Soviet republic - bordering several EU states and Russia - at both NATO and the European Union (EU).

Belarus has participated in NATO partnership programs since the 1990s. However, in view of the government's crackdown on political opposition, relations with Minsk have been strained for years.

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