NATO turning Baltic region into area of confrontation with Russia - Russia's NATO envoy
MOSCOW. Nov 23 (Interfax) - Russia's NATO envoy Alexander Grushko said NATO's efforts to strengthen military presence in Baltic countries is a dead-end track.
"NATO is turning the Baltic region, which was - let me say again - a rather quiet region from the military point of view, into a sphere of some sort of military confrontation with Russia. It is an absolutely dead-end option," he said in an interview with Rossiya 24 television.
NATO's expanded presence in the region will get a corresponding response from Russia, which will not make regional security any stronger, the Russian diplomat said.
"The efforts which the Baltic countries and Poland have made to get foreign troops deployed in their territory, are not making their security any stronger. From the point of view of military balances, any breach of the military balance increases risks of military incidents and builds up tensions. Everyone must understand that potentials will be countered by potentials, activity by activity," Grushko said.
The Baltic region has been for many years a unique venue where additional measures of restraint were being tested, he also said.
"There was a host of conditions in place which, in principle, allowed projecting the example of cooperation around the Baltic region to other regions of Europe with due account taken of the security aspects of the situation in each region," he said.
"Unfortunately, all this has been broken," Grushko said.