MOSCOW, September 12. /ITAR-TASS/. NATO is returning to the “Cod War” schemes. This is the main conclusion which Russia should draw from the alliance’s recent summit in Wales, Russia’s Ambassador to NATO Alexander Grushko said at a Moscow-Brussels video conference on Friday.
The NATO summit was held in Wales on 4-5 September 2014. This was the first NATO summit since Chicago in 2012 and the first NATO summit in the United Kingdom since 1990.
Gurshko said that many decisions had been passed in Wales and that Russia would need time to assess what impact they might have on Russian security interests. The Russian diplomat said that one of the goals which Washington pursued in Wales was to tie its European partners even closer and force them to increase their military spending.
“US contributions make up 75% of NATO budget. The United States has long been calling for the need to reduce that burden,” Grushko said, adding the US had used the recent summit “to drive another wedge between Europe and Russia.”
Grushko accused NATO of serious violations of its commitment not to deploy additional forces permanently that is fixed in the Russia-NATO Founding Act on Mutual Relations.
The Russian diplomat said that the alliance’s decision to build up its presence in the Black and Baltic Seas was a source of concern for Russia because it marked a shift in the regional balance of forces.
It is possible to convene a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council. The problem is that for the moment there are no topics for discussion, Grushko said. The diplomat explained that the Russia-NATO Council had been an instrument used to assess the security situation and outline areas for common actions.
“The Russia-NATO Council was important for supervising joint projects. But now after the NATO summit, I do not see any topic which we could discuss. If NATO is going to have what to discuss, we will study its proposal,” Grushko stressed.
NATO exploits Ukraine’s crisis to promote its own geopolitical interests, Grushko noted. “Evidently, results of the NATO summit will facilitate settlement of Ukraine’s crisis in no way,” the diplomat said, adding that the alliance's role in Ukraine was exceptionally destructive.
“NATO used Ukraine’s crisis to press its allies and make a geopolitical U-turn,” Grushko said, explaining that it would be hard to coax extra money for defense out of its allies or win consent to deployment of more troops.
Before developments in Ukraine, the alliance had been in a difficult situation and “got to thinking how to raise its profile in world affairs”, Grushko said.