MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th August, 2020) NATO's steps are fraught with increasing conflict potential, including in the Baltic region, given that the alliance does not maintain dialogue with Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry's Second European Department Director Sergey Belyaev told Sputnik in an interview.
"NATO's actions � which often verge upon provocation and aggression � create preconditions for increasing the conflict potential, including in the traditionally calm Baltic Sea region, where there are no problems requiring a military solution. Especially given that there is in fact no real dialogue between Russia and the alliance, and the military contacts are blocked," Belyaev said, commenting on the Baltic Sea security situation.
Russian armed forces are less active in the Baltic region and in the Arctic than those of the NATO member states, the diplomat noted.
"We have repeatedly put forward proposals aimed at de-escalating military tensions and avoiding misunderstanding of each other's intentions. These include resumption of military dialogue; withdrawal of military drills areas from the Russia-NATO contact line; prevention of dangerous military activities and incidents, first of all, in the Baltic and the Black Sea regions, through using transmitter-responders and determining the minimum distance acceptable when aircraft and vessels approach each other; mutual information sharing about upcoming drills; and invitation of observers. In fact, the alliance just keeps ignoring our initiatives," Belyaev said.
