MOSCOW: Russia’s foreign ministry on Tuesday said it had summoned Germany’s ambassador to lodge a protest over a new NATO naval command centre on the Baltic Sea, warning of potential consequences for the expansion of military infrastructure in the region.
Germany on Monday opened the NATO centre in the German port city of Rostock to boost defence readiness in the Baltic Sea region as Russia continues its Ukraine offensive.
The centre, led by a German admiral and staffed by personnel from 11 NATO countries, will coordinate naval operations and provide continuous maritime surveillance in the region, according to Germany’s Defence Minister Boris Pistorius.
In its statement, Russia’s foreign ministry condemned the creation of the base, calling it a “blatant breach” of the 1990 treaty on the reunification of Germany, which stipulated that no foreign armed forces would be deployed in former East Germany.
Moscow expressed a “decisive protest” to the German ambassador and warned that NATO’s military expansion in the region “will not remain without a corresponding response from the Russian side.”
The ministry added that the establishment of the command centre in what was once East Germany would have “the most negative consequences” for security and stability in the region.
