{Russia\u2019s continued nuclear-related threats are unnecessary and disruptive, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday.}<\/p>\n
\u201cRussia\u2019s nuclear saber-rattling is unjustified, destabilizing and dangerous,\u201d Stoltenberg said during public remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. \u201cWe learned during the Cold War that when it comes to nuclear weapons, caution, predictability and transparency are vital.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moscow\u2019s signaling that it would place nuclear-capable missile systems in Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave bordering Poland, and the Crimean Peninsula, \u201cwould fundamentally change the balance of security in Europe\u201d, Stoltenberg said. <\/p>\n
He also warned of increased \u201cprovocative\u201d flights by Russian nuclear-capable bombers from \u201cJapan to Gibraltar\u201d and \u201cCrete to California,\u201d saying Russia has stepped up its air activity by roughly 50 percent.<\/p>\n
A \u201clarge number\u201d of those military flights are conducted with their flight transponders turned off \u2013 potentially endangering civilian aircraft, according to Stoltenberg.<\/p>\n
More broadly speaking, Stoltenberg criticized Russia\u2019s actions regarding Ukraine, saying that Moscow has used snap exercises to annex Crimea and that such mass military mobilizations have \u201cmasked support to separatists in eastern Ukraine. And led to the build-up of forces on Ukraine\u2019s border.\u201d <\/p>\n
Russia is currently holding one such exercise involving 250 aircraft and 700 pieces of heavy equipment, he added.<\/p>\n
Still, he said that the transatlantic alliance\u2019s relations with Russia has not deteriorated to Cold War levels, \u201cbut we are far from a strategic partnership. <\/p>\n
\u201cRussia is a global actor that is asserting its military power,\u201d he said. \u201cWe regret that Russia is taking this course. Because when might becomes right, the consequences are grave.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regarding non-state threats, Stoltenberg welcomed NATO allies collaborating on the U.S.-led anti-ISIL coalition, saying that the alliance\u2019s \u201cexperience\u201d and \u201cinteroperability\u201d are \u201cvery useful.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see violence, turmoil in Iraq, Syria, and in North Africa. We see people trying to cross the Mediterranean, and we also see terrorist attacks taking place on our streets inspired by some of the ISIL and other terrorist organizations in the south,\u201d he said using another acronym for ISIL.<\/p>\n
{{World Bulletin}}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Russia\u2019s continued nuclear-related threats are unnecessary and disruptive, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday.} \u201cRussia\u2019s nuclear saber-rattling is unjustified, destabilizing and dangerous,\u201d Stoltenberg said during public remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. \u201cWe learned during the Cold War that when it comes to nuclear weapons, caution, predictability and transparency are vital.\u201d Moscow\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000068708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-19652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000068708,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton19652.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton19652.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton19652.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton19652.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton19652.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton19652.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000068708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19652"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=19652"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=19652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}