"Recently, the American warship visited (Turkey’s naval base) Aksaz. Such visits will continue. The destroyer USS Donald Cook and similar ships will always be in the east of the Mediterranean Sea for the protection of Turkey, their presence will be increased," RIA Novosti cites Turkish ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgic as saying.
On October 30, an unnamed senior US defense official said that dozens of F-15C jets would join A-10 ground attack aircraft at the Incirlik Air Base in south Turkey. Earlier, around a dozen "tank killer" A-10s landed at Incirlik in mid-October.
Although the Pentagon announced that the deployment is to ‘ensure the safety’ of America’s NATO allies, the move was seen by some as a counter to Russia’s airstrikes in Syria.
"I didn’t say it wasn’t about Russia," Laura Seal told The Daily Beast late Tuesday in a follow-up to comments describing the deployment as a way to "ensure the safety" of Turkish aircraft.
Earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance is discussing the possibility of leaving SAM Patriot in Turkey for 2016, but the decision is still pending.
[Sputnik]
5/11/15
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NATO's secretary-general sounded the alarm Thursday over the build-up of Russian military forces from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean and called on the U.S.-led alliance to come up with a response....
ReplyDeleteJens Stoltenberg said the Russians have concentrated military forces in Kaliningrad, the Black Sea and the eastern Mediterranean, where they are assisting beleaguered Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Speaking at a news conference during NATO war games, Stoltenberg experts believe the build-up of Russian military might could lead to Moscow's ability to limit the access of the United States and its allies to certain regions.
"We have to be sure that we are able to overcome these capabilities, so we can reinforce, so we can move and we can deploy forces if needed," Stoltenberg said.
The NATO chief said the challenge of Russia's new capabilities in the field of what defense specialists call ``anti-access/area denial'' has become ``the question on our agenda.''...........AP...........http://www.voanews.com/content/nato-chief-sounds-alarm-over-russian-buildup/3038328.html