PEJOURNAL – Recent NATO military exercises in the Black Sea, with the active participation of an advanced destroyer as well as US anti-submarine aircraft, have once again raised the issue of NATO-Russia confrontation in Eastern Europe in the media. The recent military exercise focused on “air defense and intelligence cooperation.”
The history of this confrontation dates back to July 2016, when a joint NATO-Ukraine maneuver was carried out with the presence of American missile destroyers, as well as the participation of Bulgaria, France, Georgia, Norway, Romania, Spain and Turkey. Russia warned of the security consequences of the maneuver, and immediately after it ended, it held a military exercise with more than 20 ships and submarines.
NATO’s presence in the Black Sea with the aim of deterring Russia has doubled since the annexation of the Crimean peninsula. Although NATO claims to be helping “free shipping”, the US-centric military alliance will eventually seek to violate the annexation of the Crimean peninsula to Russia.
The importance of maintaining NATO alliance, especially Bulgaria and Turkey against Russia, is another reason for the increasing military presence of the United States and its allies in the Black Sea. In particular, Russia has tried to create discord among NATO members on the Black Sea coast by being close to Turkey.
This exercise demonstrates once again that, despite all the attention now being paid in the United States to the potential threat to China in the Pacific, deterrence against Russia is still a serious operational priority for the United States and its partners. It seems that this issue will become more important in the next US administration and will intensify NATO’s confrontation with Russia.