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Russian NATO envoy says Black Sea will never be "NATOâ€™s lake"

30 May 2016 20:38 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Brussels understands it perfectly well that the Black Sea will never be a "NATO lake," Russia’s Permanent Representative to NATO Alexander Grushko said in an interview with the Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily to be published on Tuesday, APA reports quoting TASS.

"Today, NATO is seeking to transfer confrontational schemes into the Black Sea waters," he said. "Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said recently that the Black Sea has nearly turned into a ‘Russian lake’ because of NATO’s absence there. But NATO understands it perfectly well that the Black Sea will never be a NATO lake, and we are doing our best to neutralize possible threats and attempts to exert pressure on Russia from the south."

He reminded that Russia’s Black Sea Fleet "was involved in the international efforts to stabilize the situation in the Mediterranean region and south of it." "Thus, the fleet’s ships took an active part in anti-piracy operations in coordination with NATO and the European Union," he noted. "Now, NATO has denounced that."