Nato Aircraft Transponders Off - BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Moscow offered to fly its jets over the Baltic region with their transponders engaged, an apparent concession to NATO powers who accuse Russia's air force of endangering aviation by turning off the devices that allow them to be detected by ground radar.
The proposal comes after two years of several near misses between Western planes, both civilian and military, and Russian jets in the skies above the Baltics that NATO has patrolled since Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Nato Aircraft Transponders Off
They did it all at once a couple of hours before the announcement. The fact that some of them are back up now doesn't cancel the message they sent. NATO knew the announcement about mobilization was coming and sent a pretty clear message by doing this.
They have been further strained by a dispute over the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, which is opposed by the US. Mr. Blinken has warned that any companies involved in the project risk US sanctions.
Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called last week for Russia to resume dialogue in the form of the Nato-Russia Council, which has not met since 2019. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said Nato was unable to get rid of the habit of seeing Russia as
a "threat from the East". Jens Stoltenberg's call last week was backed up by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a visit to the alliance's headquarters in Brussels, when he proposed a "relationship with Russia that is at least predictable and stable".
Putin agreed to Wednesday's meeting of the NATO-Russia Council, only the second since mid-2014, while also recently allowing a U.N. resolution authorizing the EU to intercept arms shipments to Libya in the Mediterranean. Putin has spoken by telephone U.S.
President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Holland in recent days. According to Nato, while the Russian military aircraft never entered its member states' airspace, they did not transmit transponder codes, thus posing a potential risk to civilian flights.
The alliance said the interceptions involved six groups of Russian planes: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed the proposal but said that all jets under NATO command already flew with their transponders on. "Transponders are important, but they are only one element of a broader picture related to air safety.
The basic thing is safe behavior, to fly in a safe and professional way," Stoltenberg said. Meanwhile, a 2020 ceasefire in Ukraine, which is not a member of Nato, has come under strain with both sides blaming each other for the rise in violence.
Ukraine's commander in chief, Ruslan Khomchak, has accused Russia of pursuing an "aggressive policy" and sending Russian troops close to Ukrainian borders. The transponders plan, which was raised by Putin during a visit to Finland this month, was put to NATO ambassadors both by Russia's envoy and generals at the meeting at NATO headquarters.
Diplomats said there was no detailed discussion. In a sign of the continued tensions between Russia and the West, Grushko reiterated Moscow's position that NATO's biggest modernization since the end of the Cold War is putting Europe's security at risk.
NATO denies that, saying its military build-up is a proportionate response to Russia's actions in Ukraine. It also comes after several gestures by Russian President Vladimir Putin that seem to aim at defusing East-West tensions despite NATO's summit last weekend in Warsaw.
There, the alliance agreed to deploy a multinational force to the Baltics and Poland and to take over a U.S.-built missile shield that Russia sees as hostile. "The message was very clear. There is no reason for NATO to do what it is doing ... The direction in which NATO is moving in military terms is very worrisome," Grushko said.
"It takes us back to the Cold War," he said.
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