BRUSSELS
NATO accused Moscow of posing a threat to civilian air traffic in both the Baltic and Black Sea after a Russian military plane reportedly turned off its location device and nearly collided with a Swedish civilian airliner Friday.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels on Monday that the alliance had seen a substantial increase in Russian activity around NATO borders.
Stoltenberg said: ''it’s not only question of increased number of flights but the way they are conducted. They're not communicating with civilian air traffic control and not turning on transponders. That poses a risk to civilian air traffic.''
Sweden and Denmark summoned Monday the Russian ambassadors in their respective capitals, in response to a Russian military plane reportedly turning off its location device and nearly colliding with a Swedish civilian airliner, which was flying from Danish capital Copenhagen to Poznan in Poland on Friday.
The Russian Defense Ministry denied Sunday that one of its jets had nearly collided with the Swedish SAS civilian airliner.
While civilian airliners are required to have their location devices -- transponders -- on at all times, officials say military planes do turn their transponders off.
Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said in a statement Sunday that the Russian military plane flew ''strictly in compliance with international airspace rules.''
''Flights of NATO warplanes, which have become threefold more intensive in the last few months, are always made with switched-off transponders in international airspace near Russian borders,'' Konashenkov was quoted as saying by Russian news agency Itar-Tass.
However, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that all NATO planes turn on their location devices.
''All NATO planes [evacuations planes and jets] are conducting their flights in compliance with international safety standards and that NATO jets are turning on their transponders,'' Stoltenberg said on Monday at a press conference in Brussels.
However, Wallstrom told reporters in Brussels on Monday: ''Swedish [military] planes have flown without transponders and NATO planes do that as well; this is a larger problem that needs to be sorted out.''
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