NATO is currently preparing a package of measures to curb Russia’s actions in the Black Sea basin, including sending ships to the Black Sea to ensure the passage of Ukrainian ships through the Kerch Strait, United States Permanent Representative to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison has said.
“We have been working on a package of measures that we plan to present to the foreign ministers. It is a package that provides for enhanced surveillance, including air surveillance, while more NATO ships go into the Black Sea to ensure there is safe passage of Ukrainian ships through the Kerch Strait to the Sea of Azov,” she said.
She added: “It is very important that Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine, as well as Georgia, have security in that Black Sea area, both for ship and their land-based safety.”
A U.S. State Department spokesman earlier said NATO foreign ministers would meet at the U.S. State Department.
“The first plenary session will focus on Russia, where I expect ministers will endorse a package of Black Sea measures designed to improve the alliance’s deterrence and defense posture in the region. And they’re also likely to discuss the INF Treaty, and specifically, Russia’s failure to return to full and verifiable compliance with the INF Treaty. We certainly appreciate – we the United States appreciate the strong statements that NATO has issued in December of last year and February of this year on the INF, which makes clear that Russia’s violation of the treaty is responsible for the current situation,” the spokesman said.
The spokesman said, “The Black Sea package is, in part, a response to the challenges we face in that region, the Black Sea region, not merely because of the Kerch Strait incident, but because we find that Russia is threatening the alliance all along the eastern flank, not just in the north. So we’ll be – I don’t want to get in front of the ministers or in front of their news, but there will be a Black Sea package that comes out of all this.”
A meeting of NATO foreign ministers, timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the alliance, will be held in Washington on April 3-4.
