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NATO deputy chief urges allies to enhance cooperation in Black Sea region

Xinhua, April 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow here on Friday said the allies in the Black Sea region, together with the United States, should enhance cooperation against common threats.

"The significance of the Black Sea region, as a NATO frontier, as a crossroads between Europe, Asia and the Middle East, as the site of several so-called 'frozen conflicts,' and as a source and transit route for energy, means that what happens here is a key concern for NATO," Vershbow said in a keynote speech at an international conference on Black Sea security.

The seriousness of the security situation required NATO to look at new ways of maintaining peace and stability in the region, Vershbow said.

Key to this was the commitment of NATO members to stop the cuts in defense budgets and gradually increase defense spending to 2 percent of gross domestic product within a decade, he said.

Along with spending more money on defense, allies needed to ensure the highest levels of interoperability: the ability of their militaries to cooperate against common threats, Vershbow said.

"Cooperation between allies, especially between our Black Sea allies Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, and involving the United States, will be key to the security challenges we face," he said.

NATO was good at sharing intelligence and situational awareness but "we can do better," he said.

"The further deployment of intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance capabilities, for example, would help us to see threats coming sooner, and so help us regain the strategic initiative," Vershbow said.

"We need to consider a more persistent NATO military presence in the region, with a particular focus on our maritime capabilities," he said.

He recalled that NATO already implemented a series of assurance measures for its eastern allies, including AWACS surveillance flights, and the intensification of NATO maritime patrols in the Black Sea itself.

In addition, the United States planned to expand its exercises and training with NATO allies and partners, and to augment pre-positioned equipment, including in both Bulgaria and Romania, Vershbow said. Enditem