At a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council on Wednesday, the alliance will raise the issue of provocative maneuvers by the Russian military after Russian Su-24s approached a US Navy destroyer in the Baltic Sea

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (Photo: AP)

The first meeting of the Russia-NATO Council at the ambassadorial level since June 2014 will take place on Wednesday, April 20. At the meeting, alliance allies plan to draw attention to the “unprofessional and unsafe behavior” of Russian pilots, Bloomberg writes , citing a statement by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg .

The alliance will demand that Russia refrain from provocative military maneuvers following a series of close encounters between Russian aircraft and the USS Donald Cook destroyer in the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea last week. According to Stoltenberg, the incidents with the US destroyer in the Baltic Sea "only highlight the importance of open negotiations on military issues, predictability and risk reduction."

As the Pentagon reported, first one Russian Su-24 bomber flew in close proximity to the American destroyer Donald Cook, and a few days later several Russian planes and a helicopter approached the ship.

The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the Su-24 crews carried out scheduled training flights over the Baltic in full compliance with international standards . The military department emphasized that, having discovered the ship, “Russian pilots turned away from it in compliance with all safety measures.”

Reuters, citing the American military, wrote that Russian planes several times approached the destroyer at a distance of about 30 m. And the US Navy published a video showing how low the Su-24 flew .

In turn, the Russian military drew attention to the fact that the American destroyer at the time the Russian Su-24s flew over it was approximately 70 km from the Russian naval base, and on the day of the approach to the destroyer, the crews of the Su-24 aircraft of the Aerospace Forces (VKS) of Russia carried out scheduled training flights over the neutral waters of the Baltic.

The United States discussed the overflight incident through diplomatic channels (through the military attache at the embassy in Moscow); Secretary of State John Kerry later called the incident “reckless” and “provocative” behavior .

Relations between Russia and NATO became tense after the outbreak of the crisis in Ukraine and the events in Crimea in April 2014. Then practical cooperation between the alliance and the Russian military was stopped. NATO leadership emphasized the need to maintain diplomatic dialogue with Moscow.

At the beginning of April 2016, NATO announced a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council in Brussels. Later it became known that the meeting would take place on April 20.

NATO decided to discuss with Moscow the behavior of Russian pilots