Latvian Foreign Minister Edgar Rinkevichs made a clash of NATO and Russia, writes Financial Times.
Foreign Minister spoke about the militarization of the Minsk border with Lithuania. According to him, the upcoming Russian-Belarusian teachings will lead to increasing stress. The Minister believes that they are able to pour out in the “incident” with NATO troops in the Baltic countries and in Poland. Rinkevichs made that the teachings “West-2021” will lead to “misunderstanding of certain actions” by Russia and Belarus. “When you have a border crisis, large military exercises at the boundaries of the North Atlantic Alliance are passing when you increase the presence of troops on our side (in Lithuanian, Estonian and Polish), then all this, of course, increases the likelihood of incidents,” the minister stressed.
The teachings of Russian and Belarusian troops will be held from September 10 to September 19 in the territory of the two states. As part of preparation for events in late July, Russian military arrived in Brest.
Earlier Commander of the US Navy in Europe and Africa Admiral Robert Berk said that NATO ships in theory can open fire on the Russian fleet in the Black Sea. According to him, the possibility of impact exists if Russia is provocative in relation to the alliance forces, and the Captain of the NATO ship will account for this as a threat.