NATO rejected on Wednesday Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's remarks on the alliance's military buildup in the Black Sea.
"There is no NATO buildup of forces in the Black Sea. There is a temporary deployment for the purpose of a long-planned NATO exercise of four NATO vessels," NATO spokesman James Appathurai told reporters.
"There is no connection between the exercise and the conflict in Georgia," he said.
Putin said Tuesday that Russia will respond calmly to an increase in NATO ships in the Black Sea. But he pledged that there will be an answer.
The NATO spokesman rejected Putin's remarks. "The remarks by Prime Minister Putin on a response -- a mysterious response -- to this buildup are a little bit difficult to understand," he said.
"If the Russian Federation is looking for a pretext to take other steps, this is not a very good one," he added.
Appathurai said the deployment of the vessels in the Black Sea was planned a year ago, and that the NATO vessels are not delivering assistance to Georgia. The ships, which arrived in the Black Sea on Aug. 21, will leave on schedule within the 21-day period, he said.
The ships will conduct exercises with Bulgarian and Romanian ships as well as pay a port visit to Varna, Bulgaria, NATO said.
The warships, known as Standing NATO Maritime Group One, form a group of member nations' frigates and destroyers, which exercise together year round to promote interoperability, it said.
The four NATO vessels currently in Black Sea are the Spanish SPS Adm Juan de Bourbon, the German FGS Luebeck and the Polish ORP General K Pulaski and the U.S. frigate USS Taylor.
Two other U.S. military ships have been sent to the Black Sea, delivering aid to Georgia, noted Appathurai. He added that the U.S. ships are not part of the NATO group.
Source:Xinhua
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