Moscow ready for military contacts to reduce risks in Arctic region, says envoy

MOSCOW (TASS): Moscow favors multilateral dialogue on security among Arctic states and is ready for military contacts to reduce tension, Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador-at-Large, Russia’s Senior Official at the Arctic Council Nikolai Korchunov said at a roundtable discussion on Wednesday.

“Russia is ready for corresponding multilateral military contacts that would be aimed at cultivating confidence-building measures, reducing tension and preventing conflict situations, misunderstandings or the misevaluation of military capabilities,” the Russian envoy pointed out.

“We see an increasingly large number of military potentials in the Arctic… In our view, a multilateral dialogue among Arctic states on military security would be useful,” Korchunov stressed.

Russia has to take the activity of NATO states in the Arctic region into account in its military planning, the envoy mentioned.

“We see signs of growing military and political tension in the region, the stepped-up activity of NATO member contingents, first of all, non-Arctic countries. We can only be alarmed by this. We are forced to take this into account in our military planning in the Arctic. The risk of an arms race must not be underestimated,” he pointed out.

The spirit of constructive cooperation manifested in the Arctic Council should be transferred to the military and political sphere, the Russian envoy said.