The exchange of briefings on military exercises between Russia and NATO is not enough for deescalation, this requires the restoration of fully-fledged contacts between military officials, Russia’s envoy to NATO Alexander Grushko said Thursday.
At a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council in Brussels earlier on Thursday, the Russian side informed the alliance of the Zapad-2017 exercises, while the NATO members briefed on the upcoming Trident Javelin exercises.
“If we talk seriously about deescalation, the prevention of dangerous military incidents, such briefings, even at the ambassadorial level, will not be enough,” Grushko told reporters.
The Russian envoy stressed that to achieve real progress towards deescalation, or at least to gain some degree of mutual trust between Russia and NATO, it is necessary “to think about restoring systemic military contacts.”
Russia is planning to hold briefings for military diplomats at OSCE headquarters in Vienna and in Moscow on the upcoming Zapad-2017 military exercises, he said.
“This is only the first step in informing our colleagues. The Russian Defense Ministry has already announced that the relevant briefings will be given in Vienna. Another briefing for the military- diplomatic corps in Moscow will be given closer to the start of the exercises,” Grushko said.
Zapad-2017 is a joint strategic exercise of the Russian and Belarusian armed forces scheduled for September 14-20, 2017.
