Russia to take part in joint military drills with NATO off Pakistan
Russia says it will send its Navy to join drills by members of the Western military alliance of NATO, in a rare move for the first time in a decade.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that it will partake in the AMAN-2021 anti-piracy drills that are set to be held in waters near the Pakistani city of Karachi in February 2021, Russia’s TASS news agency reported.
The 30-member event will also be joined by the United States, which is NATO’s biggest military, British, Turkish, and Japanese vessels as well as China’s Navy, another rather uncommon attendee.
Russia and the alliance are at loggerheads as Moscow blames the latter for military buildup in its backyard.
NATO, meanwhile, accuses Russia of destabilizing eastern Ukraine.
Ties and cooperation between the two sides fell apart altogether in 2014 after Ukraine’s Crimea, a former Russian territory, voted to rejoin Russia.
The last time Russian and NATO vessels took part in drills together was at the NATO-led Bold Monarch exercises in 2011 off the coast of Spain, TASS noted.
The US-led alliance, meanwhile, still distanced itself far from any intention to proactively join maneuvers with Moscow.
"Our practical cooperation remains suspended,” NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu clarified to AFP, adding that the alliance itself "has no exercise planned with Russia."
She, however, said that the participation of individual nations was up to them to decide
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