MOSCOW, July 24 (RIA Novosti) - Russian military ships will not be involved in anti-piracy operations under the command of NATO or the European Union, Russia's permanent envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said on Friday.
Russia is a member of the coalition of 16 countries, which are currently involved in anti-piracy efforts off the coast of Somalia.
"As far as [the fight against] piracy is concerned, why should our ships be under foreign military command? We will not operate under the command of the European Union, we will not take part in NATO operations," Dmitry Rogozin told the Ekho Moskvy radio station.
A total of 126 vessels have been attacked with 44 of them captured since the start of the year in the region. Somalian pirates are currently holding around 270 hostages on at least 16 vessels.
Russia-NATO relations were marred by a five-day war between Russia and Georgia, after which Russia recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
During a meeting of the Russia-NATO council in Brussels, Russia said that its anti-piracy efforts in the Gulf of Aden should be coordinated with NATO and the EU, but at a "working level," between vessel captains.
Rogozin added that Russia and NATO were also not yet ready to hold joint military exercises.
"We don't think that NATO is ready for this," he said, adding that the alliance did not regard
Russia as its partner.
"A year ago we held an extremely successful computer military exercise on anti-ballistic missile defense in Europe," he said. "The exercise went smoothly and demonstrated the compatibility of our missile defense systems. But if NATO continues to lean towards the U.S. missile defense system... we will be forced to stop even this type of cooperation."
Relations between Russia and NATO have also been frayed in recent years over the military alliance's eastern expansion. Ukraine and Georgia, both former Soviet republics, have applied to join, but their U.S.-backed bids were turned down due to pressure from Germany and
France at a 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest.
