NATO wants to turn Black Sea into military confrontation zone: Russian govt

In a key development amid Russia's exit from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said the United Nations and its allies are looking to turn the Black Sea region into a military confrontation zone. Grushko stated NATO's move as "extremely dangerous" and also pointed out the Baltic Sea issue. This came a day after the Russian defense minister met with his counterpart of neighboring Belarus with an aim to strengthen military ties.

"Now they have taken up the Black Sea region. We are witnessing increased activity on the territory of Bulgaria and Romania and are on our way towards turning the Black Sea into an arena of military rivalry, as the Baltic Sea has already turned into a confrontation zone." He further stated that NATO is on an "extremely dangerous path." This may lead to risks of military incidents as well as escalations, reported the Russian news agency TASS citing Russia24 news channel.

"I would like to emphasise that in 2014, a decision was made to cease any practical cooperation with Russia, and contacts along the military track were interrupted. When NATO tells us that it is necessary to improve the preventive mechanisms of dangerous military incidents and we are saying that we are ready to discuss the maximum acceptable distances of approach between a warship and an aircraft, they don’t let us include the military [in the discussion]," the senior diplomat added.

The deputy foreign minister said that at this juncture, that the Russian Federation is not at all willing to hold any political dialogue with the UN and its allies, while the military is quite capable of reaching agreements.

The senior diplomat concluded saying that he was not talking about some measures that they developed with regards to the Baltic region. The measures were developed thanks to a very depoliticized approach, thanks to the initiative of Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, the participation of neutral Sweden, the participation of Baltic states, experts, the civilian employees of the military. "Thanks to them, measures were developed that maybe slightly improved the situation. We were ready to proceed further, but NATO was not ready," he said.

NATO-Russia tension

To counter the expulsion of the United Nation allies of the Russian military alliance, the Russian federation announced disengagement with the intergovernmental military alliance on October 18, 2021. Moscow blamed NATO for not providing equal dialogue opportunities and showing any effort to neutralize the military-political tension. It is pertinent to mention here that the Russian government is ready to cooperate with NATO in further "de-escalation" in the Baltic region, but the United Nations and its allies have strongly refused the offer. Meanwhile, Moscow believes that the actions of the United States and its allies are deliberate and that their goal is to conquer the region.

Image: AP