NATO increases military and political tensions in the Arctic region through encouraging extra-regional nations to engage in military activities there, the Russian Foreign Ministry's ambassador-at-large for international Arctic cooperation, Nikolai Korchunov, has said in an interview with Sputnik, APA reports.
"Internationalization of military activities in the Arctic region, which exacerbates due to NATO forces' stepped-up activities in the region, is becoming a more and more visible trend causing military and political tensions," Korchunov said.
He added that "extra-regional nations and countries that are uncommitted to military alliances" were being "lured into this dubious activity."
"Countries that are far from the Arctic have started including the Arctic into the area of their military activity," Korchunov specified.
The Russian official referred to the UK Defense Ministry's Arctic Strategy, released in 2018, and to the French Defense Ministry's report, justifying the country's military presence in the Arctic, which was released this fall.
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