MOSCOW. July 16 (Interfax-AVN) - NATO officials have been invited to observe training exercises that will take place on the Kola Peninsula next year, Russia's permanent NATO representative Konstantin Totsky said.
"On behalf of Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, I have presented our partners with an invitation to attend exercises on the Kola Peninsula next year as observers," Totsky said in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper that was published on Wednesday.
He noted that Russia and NATO are facing common threats. "Moscow and the alliance are getting closer. There is now a broader understanding between them. I would like to hope that this process will be irreversible," Totsky said.
"In light of NATO's enlargement, I would like to note that we cannot welcome this fact. New military bases and new military units are being deployed near our borders. We are not happy with it. I think that this form of ensuring national security is an echo of the Cold War," he said.
Totsky noted that "failure to ratify the adapted Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe is threatening. I cannot find any other explanation for this delay in ratification than an attempt to preserve the possibility of re-deploying troops and weapons to the east of Europe," he said.
He said that an ambassador session of the Russia-NATO Council will take place on July 23.