NATO Won't Need to Increase Its Presence if Russia Stops Troops Buildup

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — According to the chairman, Russia also needs to show a will to negotiate transparency and risk reduction measures with the alliance.

"If there is no more buildup on Russian side, if there is a will to sit down at the table and to discuss transparency and risk reduction measures I believe that there is no need on NATO side to increase the level of military presence," Petr Pavel told RIA Novosti.

He stressed that building more transparency and reducing force levels is key to moving NATO-Russia relations forward.

"The capability of Russian military forces in the region have doubled at least," Petr Pavel told RIA Novosti, commenting on Russian military presence in Crimea. "There is quite a large number of ground forces in Crimea, increase in the number of ships, submarines, patrol aircraft and other aircraft in the area."

"Russia is also building the system which is called in NATO 'anti-access area denial' by exerting the coverage of all the region within the reach of their weapons. Such a capacity in itself is not an offensive measure, but may be potentially limiting the freedom of maneuver in international waters, international airspace," he said.

According to Pavel, countries such as Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey "feel such a development threatening their security interests" and call on NATO to increase its presence to the region.

"We can again take it as a kind of military competition in the region and building more and more capabilities – or we can take a similar approach to the Baltics creating a platform for building more transparency and reducing force levels to the necessary minimum to assure each other that there are no hostile intentions, that there is no threat to each other’s territory. And that is, in my view, the way ahead," he concluded.

Strengthening military presence is not in the interests of neither NATO nor Russia, the chairman said.

"I don't think that it is in the interest of Russia or NATO to start a military buildup of forces on both sides. I believe it is just the opposite – it is in common interest to defuse this tension and to start rebuilding the trust," Pavel noted.

According to Pavel, the permanent representatives of the NATO-Russia Council are unlikely to agree on a risk reduction document that would remove all tensions between the sides during the next meeting on July 13.

"I think it would be probably too much to expect that out of this NATO-Russia Council we will have a document that would be ready for the signature and all the tensions would be gone. After years of suspended cooperation, after the events on the side of Russia – I mean especially the annexation of Crimea and support to Eastern Ukraine, there is quite a deep distrust. And first we have to rebuild at least basic trust," he said.

NATO and Russia could discus reducing military presence near each other's borders only after they have been able to rebuild trust, the chairman stressed.

"Such a trust can only be built on mutual respect. If we don't play by the rules it is difficult to develop the confidence between the two actors. And once we have on both sides genuine interest in risk reduction and in more transparency I think we are in the best position to start producing such a paper you are talking about that would eventually lead to re-established transparency, re-established confidence, and then we can start talking about also reducing the military presence near our borders," Pavel told RIA Novosti.