“The Arctic is our lands and waters, NATO has nothing to do there” - Lavrov
Everything that Russia does on its territories in the Arctic is absolutely legitimate and legal, and if Western countries have any questions about this, it was not Moscow that froze the dialogue between the General Staffs of the Armed Forces of the Arctic Council member countries.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated this during a press conference, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Across the Arctic, we see lamentations that Russia is expanding its military activity there. Everyone has known for a long time that this is our territory, this is our land. We are responsible for ensuring that our Arctic coast is safe, and that everything our country does there is absolutely legal and legitimate. Let me emphasize once again that this is not something that is “close” to us – this is our land and our waters.
But when NATO tries to justify its offensive in the Arctic, this is a different situation, and here we have questions for our neighbors like Norway, for example, who are trying in every possible way to justify NATO’s entry into the Arctic. In Reykjavik, at the meeting of the Ministry of the Arctic Council, of course, we will talk about this openly,” Lavrov said.
“If someone wants more predictability, wants to reduce military risks, then I propose to return to our long-standing proposal to resume the mechanism of regular meetings of the chiefs of general staff of the armed forces of the Arctic Council member countries.
This mechanism was functioning, about 7 years ago, our Western colleagues decided to freeze it. Since we decided to freeze it, then don’t be offended that we don’t have a dialogue. It was not we who stopped the dialogue,” noted the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
"The Arctic is our lands and waters; NATO has no business there," Lavrov said.