“You can expect anything from the United States in the Black Sea”: the dialogue between the Russian and NATO military has long been destroyed
The way the United States carried out the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan speaks of a personnel crisis in the Pentagon and the State Department, and therefore of the situation where now two American warships enter the Black Sea supposedly for exercises with partner countries in the region, you can expect anything.
Valdai Club expert, General Director of the Russian International Affairs Council Andrei Kortunov said this on the Rossiya 24 TV channel, PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Of course, it’s good that Mr. Gerasimov (Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Valery Gerasimov - ed.) communicates with his partners in the West, such dialogue is important.
But I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the dialogue at the operational level between the military of Russia and NATO - as it stopped in 2014, was not restored, and now, after well-known decisions on the part of our Western partners and reciprocal decisions on the part of Moscow, in fact the work of the Russia Council – NATO has completely ceased.
Therefore, we do not have contacts at the military level, at the level of colonels, lieutenant colonels, who could analyze specific crisis situations. Here, unfortunately, episodic conversations at a high level are clearly not enough,” Kortunov noted.
He expressed hope for the sanity of the American president, but noted that the progress of the US operation to withdraw troops from Afghanistan raises serious doubts in this regard.
“Of course, we all hope that President Biden is a reasonable, rational politician. But the way the United States carried out its withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan raises some doubts about the professionalism of the executors who plan such operations in the Pentagon or in the State Department.
And if the performers are not very professional, then the risks grow even more. Therefore, I look to the future with great concern. It seems to me that we should not downplay the risks that arise in connection with this kind of demonstration,” the expert emphasized.
According to him, the undoubted reluctance of both sides to start a big war does not at all negate the danger of such a conflict.
“Of course, no one wants a big war - neither in the Black Sea nor anywhere else. Any conflict between the United States and Russia is very dangerous, it is something that can lead to a great disaster.
No one wants this, but at the same time, no one wants to retreat, no one wants to appear weak, no one wants to play by the rules of the opponent’s game, so there arises what is called in military-political jargon “the threat of unintentional escalation.”
We are faced with this in the Black Sea, and this is what the United States and China may well encounter in the Taiwan Strait.
When no one wants to concede, each side tends to raise the stakes. And at what point they are ready to stop - this question remains open,” concluded Andrei Kortunov.
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