NATO does not believe that the Black Sea is Russian and will continue to be present in the region to support its partners. This is stated in an interview published on Thursday by NATO Secretary General's Special Representative for the South Caucasus and Central Asia James Appathurai on the website of the First Channel of the Georgian Public Broadcaster, TASS reports.
“We will definitely not accept that the Black Sea is Russian, and we will retain our representation to support NATO allies and partners. One of the issues that we are considering is deepening cooperation between Georgia and NATO on Georgian security in the Black Sea,” he said.
The NATO spokesman also added that the alliance is increasing its representation in the Black Sea.
“NATO is even more represented in the Black Sea, we all see this. We are talking about our units of naval forces, which are withdrawing to this region. Individual NATO members do this, but these actions are coordinated. You see the British forces, the French are flying, US regularly brings ships. Russians always do not like it, but we do it anyway,” he concluded.
Appathurai arrived in Tbilisi the day before. He is scheduled to meet with the top leadership of Georgia, including President Salome Zourabichvili. This is his last visit in the rank of NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the South Caucasus and Central Asia. In the near future, he will leave the post.
