Portugal’s defence minister, José Azeredo Lopes, today tried to play down the presence of ships from Russia’s Northern and Baltic fleets off the Portuguese coast even though the assembly includes a nuclear submarine and an aircraft carrier destined to participate in air operations in Syria.
"I have, and no else to my knowledge has, any evidence to conclude that this is a particularly serious situation. It can be treated as a form of naval demonstration like we have seen in the past," said the minister as the Russian ships sailed through Portugal’s exclusive economic zone 200 nautical miles off the Portuguese coast.
The Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, said on Thursday that he was concerned with the Russian fleet’s progression toward the Mediterranean, especially as the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier was included.
"Russia has the right to operate in international waters," Stoltenberg said, but what worries NATO "is that this Russian fleet can be used to participate in the operations on Syria."
He also said that NATO ships would be shadowing the Russian fleet “in a responsible and proportionate way."
So far the fleet has been shadowed by various European naval ships past Norway, through the North Sea, through the English Channel and acoss the Bay of Biscay to Portuguese economic zone waters as it heads to the eastern Mediterranean to bolster what could be the final attack on Aleppo.
This Russian military operation started a few weeks after the announcement by the Russian Defence Minister, Sergey Shoygu, that the Russian aircraft carrier from the Baltic fleet would be sent to the eastern Mediterranean to reinforce Russian naval forces based in Tartus, Syria where ten ships already are stationed, some with Cruise missile capabilities.
Last Thursday, Portugal’s Prime Minister António Costa attended a European Council meeting at which the delegates agreed that to condemn the attacks on Aleppo by the Russian-backed Syrian regime, although Costa refrained from making an individual statement.
Comments
Given the 'Pick on one and you pick on all of Us' NATO doctrine we must assume furious behind the scenes pleas from the rest of NATO were all that held the Portuguese back. But, when the Russians sail back - will they next time?
When do we ever see similar stories about US naval movements?
Sorry, where is the anti-Putin bit?