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NATO's joining anti-IS coalition has little to offer — senior diplomat

Earlier on Thursday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said NATO had decided to join the U.S.-led coalition fighting with the Islamic State grouping in Syria and Iraq.

MOSCOW, May 25. /TASS/. NATO's decision to join the coalition against the Islamic State has little to offer since all the NATO countries are already involved in that coalition in one way or another, the Russian Ambassador to NATO, Alexander Grushko told Rossiya'24 news channel.

"They endorsed an action plan that envisions NATO as an organization will join the anti-IS coalition led by the U.S. but from the standpoint of added value of the motion this step has little to offer, since all the member-states of the alliance all, I'm stressing are already involved in that very same coalition," Grushko said.

Earlier on Thursday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said NATO had decided to join the U.S.-led coalition fighting with the Islamic State grouping in Syria and Iraq. He announced the decision as he addressed a news conference upon completion of the NATO summit in Brussels.

Up to date, NATO as an organization was not a member of the coalition but accorded assistance to it on the terms of partnership. NATO’s AWACS planes make regular reconnaissance flights along Turkey’s border with Syria and along the Syrian coast without crossing over into the latter country’s airspace.

In addition to it, NATO is training cadres for the Iraqi Armed Forces.