Held under NATO\u2019s umbrella, the anti-missile shield project in Europe has stirred heated debates since its very beginning, placing Russia and the North Atlantic Alliance on divergent positions. Moscow has continued to criticise Washington\u2019s initiative and says it feels threatened by the shield currently under construction, while Western countries maintain the shield is only a defensive system that does not target Russia. Moscow insists on receiving legal guarantees that the shield is not directed against it, while NATO says that it has already provided such assurances.<\/p>\n
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The Kremlin believes the implementation of the system \u201ccould infringe upon the strategic balance and undermine international security\u201d. Meanwhile, the installation of the shield continues in Europe, including Romania. Furthermore, NATO has decided to set up command and control units in Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania.<\/p>\n
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During a meeting in Brussels, the NATO defence ministers announced the doubling of the size of the NATO rapid response unit to 30,000 soldiers. The move has triggered a prompt reaction from Moscow: \u201cThe opening up of additional military potential along our borders is nothing more than an attempt to exert pressure on Russia\u201d, said Moscow\u2019s envoy to NATO Alexander Grushko, who added that Russia\u2019s response will be \u201cadequate\u201d in any case.<\/p>\n
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According to envoy Alexander Grushko, \u201cthe serious changes in the military-political situation\u201d along the Russian border will \u201cnaturally\u201d lead to changes in Russia\u2019s military planning, to ensure the country\u2019s security. The decision \u201ccreates a great risk for Russia\u201d, primarily in the Baltic states, which could become a region of \u201cmilitary confrontation\u201d, says Grushko. He went on to say that the creation of a joint training centre in Georgia announced by NATO\u2019s chief Jens Stoltenberg will also contribute to geopolitical tensions and threaten regional security: \u201cThe training centre in Georgia is a step that cannot be considered anything but provocation. There is no necessity for NATO to create any (training) centres.\u201d Grushko also pointed out that the countries in the Black Sea region are capable of ensuring their own security. The Russian envoy added that for Moscow the founding act of relations between Russia and NATO \u201cremains one of the cornerstone agreements which stems from understanding that security can be enhanced only through cooperation.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Russia to assess consequences of the NATO defence shield in Europe, says Russian enjoy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":47474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[38001,13794,29310],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-61495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-defence-shield","tag-nato","tag-russia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n