Restored NATO-Russia Communications Needed to Avoid ‘Miscalculations’

WASHINGTON, January 28 (Sputnik) — The restoration of official military-to-military communications between NATO and Russia is needed in order to avoid misjudgments, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander of Transformation General Jean-Paul Paloméros said on Wednesday at the Center for a New American Security conference on the transatlantic alliance.

“I think it is important to try to restore, to deepen, but minimally to avoid…any misunderstanding or any miscalculation which could have dramatic effects,” General Paloméros said of the lapse in official NATO-Russian military communications. “What we must avoid is any risk of a military miscalculation.”

The risk is becoming “higher and higher the more you have heard of activity close to the borders of NATO,” Paloméros warned.

NATO officials have raised concerns over Russian military exercises in the Russian city of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea that took place in recent months. The transatlantic alliance itself has conducted multiple joint military exercises along Russia’s western border as part of its Readiness Action Plan, initiated after the Wales summit in June.

Last week NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander General Philip Breedlove told the press that the alliance was committed to restoring military to military communications with Russia. NATO’s headquarters in Brussels does maintain a “regularly checked line” with the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Russian Embassy, Breedlove stated.

Individual NATO members also maintain military communications with Russia, but the alliance has suspended communications between NATO and Russian top military ranks since May 2014.