NATO's military activity in the Baltic region worries Moscow

During Monday's meeting of the Russian Federation-NATO Council head of Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov expressed his worries regarding NATO's military activity in the Baltic region. "Unfortunately, the most stable European region, the Baltic region, where there exists no potential military threat due to unprecedented reduction of arms there, still continues to erect military infrastructure, modernize their airdromes and sea ports without our consent," stated Lavrov. According to him, one can draw "only one conclusion from this: that is that NATO still prefers to rely on its internal policies to protect its members, rather than relying on joint efforts to measure security in this or that region." According to the minister, it is necessary to launch the newly adapted agreement concerning regular armed forces in Europe. It is also of utmost importance, stated head of the Ministry that agreement will soon be reached concerning our involvement of our Navy in the operation "Active efforts" in the Eastern Mediterranean. "We expect our ships to be ready by fall of this year," said Lavrov. "This would be a new step, which could demonstrate new quality of our relations." The minister also expressed his hopes that NATO will show its initiative in establishing direct dialogue between the agreement"s organization of collective security and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Speaking about our relations with NATO in general, Lavrov was pretty satisfied and mentioned that the dialogue "becomes more intensive." "We truly want trustworthy strategic relations and are ready to withstand new threats arm in arm with NATO," emphasized Lavrov.