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Russian Envoy to NATO: Standoff With Moscow Drives Alliance Overhaul

© REUTERS / Christian HartmannThe NATO flag is seen through barbed wire as it flies in front of the new NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium May 24, 2017
The NATO flag is seen through barbed wire as it flies in front of the new NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium May 24, 2017 - Sputnik International
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At a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation on Wednesday in Brussels, alliance's defense ministers have agreed to upgrade bloc's command structure by the expansion of its headquarters with an aim on integrating the broader scope of the cyber defense policy.

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) The Russian Envoy to NATO Alexander Grushko said Friday that the proposed Alliance's reforms were aimed primarily at countering Russia.

"Although NATO has been justifying its measures to overhaul its military potential by the need to counter threats on all fronts, we cannot help noticing that all these efforts are focused on countering Russia," he told Russian reporters in Brussels.

Russian Envoy has stressed that it would be hard for Moscow to return to joint projects on Afghanistan after Alliance had suspended them over its split with Moscow.

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"We are open to cooperation but we have active programs [on Afghanistan] that do not involve NATO. Even if the alliance wants to return to the stalled projects, it will be hard to do that because other countries have partnered up with us… and they have a better understanding of what the situation requires," Grushko said.

Grushko has also commented on the surprising decision of the Afghanistan's defense officials to replace Russian helicopters in its military service with NATO ones.

"It’s no secret that the Pentagon has been buying our helicopters for Afghan troops. So the announced plan to switch to other systems [helicopters] has raised eyebrows among experts both in terms of armed forces’ efficiency and the difficulty of such transition," Alexander Grushko said. "Retraining even trained pilots takes a considerable effort and a lot of time," Russian Envoy to NATO told reporters. "The Pentagon’s motives in doing so are clear but they do not align well with the goal to stabilize the country and restore the government’s control over all provinces."

On Thursday, Afghanistan’s Acting Defense Minister Tariq Shah Bahrami has told reporters that his country no longer needed Russian helicopters, citing deliveries by NATO allies.

Earlier, Joseph Dunford, Chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said that it would take the Afghan Air Forces up to seven years to switch from the Russian transport assault capable Mi-17 helicopters to the US Black Hawks UH-60.

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