BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — The Russian envoy commented on Tuesday’s emergency meeting of the North Atlantic Council that was called by NATO member state Turkey after its F-16 fighter brought down a Russian Su-24 attack aircraft in Syria near the Turkish border.
Following the meeting, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg offered support for Ankara, while also calling for more contacts between Turkey and Russia to avoid such incidents in the future.
NATO foreign ministers announced in April 2014 that they had suspended indefinitely all practical civilian and military cooperation with Russia, following the start of the Ukraine crisis.
"Ankara has in effect achieved its goal – by playing the solidarity card it forced the alliance to justify its illegal action that not only undermines the joint effort against ISIL but also creates security risks for countries that have commitments to Turkey as its allies," Grushko said.
NATO Takes No Steps to Restore Military Contacts With Russia
NATO has taken no practical steps to restore military contacts with Russia after they were suspended last year, Russian Envoy to NATO Alexander Grushko said Wednesday.
“As for calls for greater transparency and predictability in Russian and NATO military activities, they are up in the air,” Grushko said. “It was the alliance’s decision to sever military contacts and it has been doing nothing to restore them in the practical sense.”
