BRUSSELS
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expressed concern on Tuesday over Russia holding snap drills after he met with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for the first time in three months.
"The snap exercises, the numbers reduce predictability and transparency along our borders and I think we should try to change that by the Russians being more transparent when it comes to their military activities," Stoltenberg said on Tuesday.
Stoltenberg reiterated his call on Russia to withdraw all its troops and what he calls support for the separatists in eastern Ukraine. Russia denies the accusations that it is supplying pro-Russia separatists with weapons.
"I underlined the importance of full implementation of the Minsk Agreements meaning respect for the cease-fire, full implementation of the cease-fire, the withdrawal of heavy weapons and of course full access for the OSCE monitors so they can monitor the implementation of the cease-fire," Stoltenberg said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said ahead of the meeting with Stoltenberg that he would listen to what NATO has to say. However, he blamed NATO for the deteriorating relations with Russia since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis.
However, Stoltenberg said it is important for NATO and Russia to communicate.
"I stated that these lines of military communication between NATO and Russia -- we keep them open and we check them," Stoltenberg said.
"It is important to have these lines of communication and also they can contribute to more predictability and avoiding any misunderstandings," he added.
