NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said earlier that Moscow’s actions in the Arctic affect the alliance’s security. Therefore, the politician called for strengthening NATO’s presence in the Far North, including the deployment of naval intelligence aircrafts.
Nikolay Korchunov, Ambassador at Large for the Arctic Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia and the Senior Arctic Official of the Russian Federation to the Arctic Council, reacted to Stoltenberg’s words. According to the politician, the Secretary General of the alliance with such statements is creating the image of the enemy around Russia.
«We are concerned about such statements. We see that the Secretary General is trying to conceptualize the decisions that were made at the last NATO summit, and intentionally create the image of the enemy in the face of Russia,» the diplomat said.
Korchunov drew attention to the fact that Russia in this region has smaller number of military bases than NATO member countries, and also abstains from joint exercises with other countries in the Far North.
“NATO is involving more and more countries into these latitudes. Many countries do not have Arctic competencies at all. This in turn, increases the risks of unintentional incidents and conflict situations. All this is a cause for serious concern,” he stressed.