Exhibition on Gagarin'sspace flight opens at NATO headquarters

BRUSSELS, April 9 (Itar-Tass) -- An exhibition on Yuri Gagarin's
flight into space has opened at NATO's headquarters in Brussels.
The exposition is on display in the vestibule of NATO's press centre.
Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's permanent representative to NATO, Dirk
Brengelman, NATO's assistant secretary general for partnership, military
representatives of the NATO countries and partner states as well as
reporters took part in the opening ceremony.
"Gagarin's flight is more than just a step in conquering outer space.
It embodies dreams of technology that serves the interests of people and
peace and contributes to the development of earth civilization," Rogozin
said.
"The presence of so many of my colleagues and partners from the
Russia-NATO Council is a good sign. As we are going to deal with space
exploration, we will use our scientific achievements for the sake of peace
and in the interests of people," Rogozin went on to say.
"In this connection, I would like to call on my NATO partners to exert
every effort to make sure that plans for the creation of the European
missile defense system would enable us to unite our technological
achievements and our will to provide for security of the entire
euro-Atlantic space. We cannot allow new security threats that can throw
us years back and lead to a new arms race to emerge in this region,"
Rogozin emphasized.
"Yuri Gagarin is a symbol of peace and it would be right to place his
portrait in a room where we and our NATO colleagues will sign an agreement
for building a common missile defense system.
The exhibition titled "Let's go!" is on view at the NATO headquarters
in an area open to visitors. The archive photos are featuring Yuri
Gagarin, Valentina Tereshkova Sergei Korolyov and other people who worked
on the Soviet space program.
A documentary about man's first flight into space was also shown at
the NATO headquarters on Friday