MADRID, July 12 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and Spain are set to hold joint naval exercises next year, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told a news conference Tuesday.
He also said Russia and Spain would practice anti-terrorist measures.
"These are neither Cold War exercises nor the movement of an armada," the minister said. "The exercises aim to increase [our] effectiveness against new challenges and threats." In particular, he referred to terrorism, the illegal arms trade and illegal migration.
Ivanov added that Russia-NATO relations were developing well.
"Russia-NATO relations have been developing successfully in the past few years because we are combating not abstract but real threats," Ivanov said.
"These threats [that Russia and NATO are combating] are so destabilizing that compared with them Cold War threats may seem like a children's joke," the minister added.
