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| Europe |
| Latvia calls the closure of the Baltic Sea to ships from Russia a 'declaration of war' |
| 2024-06-05 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [Regnum] Closing the Baltic Sea to Russian ships by the North Atlantic Alliance would be tantamount to a declaration of war, Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said in an interview with the Financial Times. Thus, he commented on the incidents with submarine cables in the Baltic Sea, which, according to him, allegedly “were sabotage by Russia.” A countermeasure could be to increase the alliance's maritime patrols, he added. At the same time, Rinkevichs called closing the Baltic to Russian ships a last resort. “It would be tantamount to a declaration of war,” he concluded. As Regnum reported, former NATO commander in Europe James Stavridis previously said that NATO would try to put pressure on Kaliningrad through the Baltic Sea - a “geographical wedge” between the Baltic countries and the rest of the military bloc. He noted that Russia's Baltic Fleet is based primarily in the port of Baltiysk, while Kaliningrad hosts significant air and missile forces and may also host tactical nuclear weapons. Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov, commenting on threats against the Kaliningrad region, said that the rhetoric associated with the advancement of NATO military infrastructure to Russian borders always causes concern. Kaliningrad is part of Russia, and will always be so, he emphasized. On 7 March 2024, Sweden became the 32nd member of NATO. The country submitted an application to the alliance together with Finland in May 2022. Helsinki was admitted to the military bloc in April 2023. The British newspaper Financial Times on March 7, citing sources, wrote that Sweden is likely to become an important logistics hub for NATO, through which the alliance will be able to quickly transfer troops to Finland and the Baltic countries if a conflict with Russia breaks out. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #1 The term is casus belli so please be precise. |
| Posted by: magpie 2024-06-05 12:10 |