Source: The West cancels large-scale exercises with Russia planned for April
Kyiv - Paris, March 22 (Navigator, Alisa Filatova) - France announced the suspension of military cooperation with Russia and expressed its readiness to take part in the likely intensification of the NATO mission in the Baltic countries in order to reassure them on the issue of ensuring security from Moscow.
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The announcement of a freeze on a significant part of the Franco-Russian military partnership comes unexpectedly after weeks of futile threats by the international community to persuade Moscow to give up Crimea.
“We have decided to interrupt all military cooperation with Russia,” French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said hours after President Vladimir Putin signed a package of laws finalizing the annexation of Crimea.
“This is exactly the decision the President of the Republic made, refusing the meeting that was supposed to take place last Wednesday between Laurent Fabius, me and our Russian colleagues,” added the head of the French Ministry of Defense during a trip to Tallinn. “We cannot simultaneously condemn military annexation and continue to cooperate,” he explained.
The postponement concerns exchanges of visits, joint exercises and stops of Russian military vessels in France, the minister clarified, emphasizing that both countries still remain in touch as part of the fulfillment of international obligations. Meanwhile, sources close to the defense minister say that military exercises by the US, UK, France and Russia planned for April have been cancelled.
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