Competitor, adversary, peer or partner – that’s how the head of Nato’s military committee said the alliance should consider Russia, and the decisions being taken at the summit in Warsaw are of particu
ADVERTISEMENTCompetitor, adversary, peer or partner – that’s how the head of Nato’s military committee said the alliance should consider Russia, and the decisions being taken at the summit in Warsaw are of particular interest to Moscow.
“In response for deployment on the permanent albeit rotational bases of four battalions in the Baltic countries and Poland, Russia will deploy its own groups of armed forces in it’s Western military district,” explained Dmitri Trenin, Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center. He continued, “what we are witnessing, unfortunately, is the return of the military-political standoff in Europe after two and a half decades of absence of such standoff.
Nato defence ministers are also considering a stronger air and sea presence in the Black Sea, where Russia has a fleet based in Crimea.
Jamie Shea, Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges told our reporter:
“At this meeting Romania is offering to build a training facility which could also help us to deploy if necessary a brigade type of force rapidly to Romania. And Romania recently activated a missile defence radar for interceptors. We are also going to look at what we need to do to reinforce our maritime presence in the Black sea as well.”
Neither Nato nor Russia look likely to “blink first”, Euronews correspondent Andrei Beketov sums up:
“Taking tough measures against Russia Nato is also keeping a channel of dialogue open to prevent accidents. But the Russian representative to NATO said that the next Nato-Russia Council meeting on 13th of July should discuss the decisions of the Summit – meaning they should be questioned. Another Russian observer described the situation after the Warsaw Summit as a cold war.”