Stoltenberg: NATO Considering Deploying Battle Groups in Romania

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - NATO is considering the possibility of deploying battle groups in Romania near the Black Sea, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.

"We are also now looking into whether we should have a more long-term change in our posture in the eastern part of the alliance. Today we have battle groups in the Baltic countries and Poland. The UK is leading the battle group in Estonia but also increasing its presence in Poland but now we are considering to have similar battle groups for instance in the Black Sea region in Romania," Stoltenberg said during a joint press conference with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Earlier in the day, Downing Street said the UK would put at readiness additional 1,000 servicemen to support the NATO eastern flank for humanitarian response in case of such a need.

Stoltenberg added that NATO defence ministers will discuss the strengthening of the alliance and deployment of additional battle groups in southeastern Europe on 16-17 February. At the same time, Stoltenberg said that he has sent a letter to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov inviting him to continue talks in the Russia-NATO Council in order to "to find a diplomatic way forward."

This comes after earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his speech marking Diplomat's Day that Moscow expects NATO and the US to take Russia's security concerns into consideration, including those related to NATO's eastward expansion and plans to deploy offensive weapons in the countries close to Russia. Persistent efforts are needed to ensure that the US and NATO provide comprehensive legal guarantees of Russia's security, Putin said.

In a separate development, Moscow has also voiced its concerns about NATO Cold Response military drills in the Arctic scheduled for early March, saying that they will increase tensions and risks of incidents. Some 35,000 troops from 28 countries are expected to participate in these drills.

"In the absence of a multilateral military dialogue in the Arctic, holding such a large-scale NATO exercise will increase tension, increase the risks of possible miscalculations and misinterpretation of intentions, random incidents and unintentional escalation. The consequence of this is the weakening of regional security, the growth of conflict, the narrowing of the agenda for constructive interaction, which implies an atmosphere of trust and cooperation," the ambassador-at-large of the Russian Foreign Ministry and senior official of the Arctic Council, Nikolai Korchunov, said.

Russia proposes to resume meetings between chiefs of general staffs of Arctic Council countries, he added.

In December 2021, Russia put forward its security proposals to the West in order to de-escalate tensions with NATO over the situation in Eastern Ukraine. The proposals state that NATO will not allow Ukraine and other former Soviet republics to join the bloc, that it would limit the number of weapons and troops deployed in NATO countries that joined the alliance after 1997, and that the parties would not send troops or place missile systems, aircraft, and warships in areas where they could be viewed as a threat to the other side. NATO and the US responded to Russia's security proposals but ignored the aforementioned demands. According to Gennady Gatilov, Russia's permanent representative to the United Nations office in Geneva, Moscow is ready to hold further talks with the US if needed, although no information about a possible new round of negotiations in Geneva can be provided yet.