Friday, October 24, 2014

Russia Warns NATO Away From Arctic Involvement

There were no emerging problems in Arctic that require NATO involvement and, “moreover, there are no problems there which demand military decisions,” Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said in a foreign policy lecture on Monday.

“We firmly believe that there are no problems in the Arctic which demand NATO participation,” he said according to a report in the ITAR TASS news agency.

“The Arctic is a territory of dialogue… We use this slogan for regular forums in Russia, and the work of the Arctic Council, to a large extent, is drawn up in this way.”

[...]

However, despite Lavrov’s comments, Russia is currently reestablishing a robust military presence in the Arctic.

Russia has reactivate[d] ten bases on its northern border to protect its claims in the region and stood up a new Northern Fleet-Unified Strategic Command earlier this year.

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