MOSCOW: Russia’s foreign ministry on Tuesday said it had summoned Germany’s ambassador to protest over a new naval command center for NATO on the Baltic Sea.
Berlin pushed back, denying Moscow’s claim that the center housing military personnel from Germany and its NATO allies violates the treaty that allowed Germany’s 1990 reunification.
Germany on Monday inaugurated the center in the port city of Rostock in the formerly communist east to boost defense readiness in the Baltic Sea region as Russia pursues its Ukraine offensive.
The Russian foreign ministry said Tuesday it had expressed a “decisive protest” to the ambassador over the creation of the center.
It said in a statement that “in Washington, Brussels and Berlin, they must realize that the expansion of NATO military infrastructure in former East Germany will have the most negative consequences.”
Moscow warned that this “will not remain without a corresponding response from the Russian side.”
The foreign ministry said the new center was a “blatant breach” of the treaty on the reunification of Germany in 1990 that said no foreign armed forces would be deployed in the area.
The center will be led by a German admiral and manned by staff from 11 other NATO countries, according to the German defense forces.
It will aim to “coordinate naval activities in the region” and provide NATO with a “maritime situation picture in the Baltic Sea region around the clock.”
A German foreign ministry spokesman told AFP that its ambassador had “very clearly denied that the 2+4 Treaty had been violated.”
The 2+4 Treaty was agreed between the former West and East Germany and the four powers that occupied Germany at the end of World War II — the then Soviet Union, the United States, France and Britain.
The ministry spokesman said that deployment of German armed forces to NATO structures “is expressly permitted under the 2+4 Treaty,” including in the former East Germany and long-divided Berlin.
“As in the past, the command staff in Rostock will consist of both German soldiers and foreign exchange and liaison officers. It will thus make a contribution to the NATO Readiness Forces.”
Russia summons German ambassador over Baltic Sea base
https://arab.news/5w3ce
Russia summons German ambassador over Baltic Sea base
- The Russian foreign ministry said Tuesday it had expressed a “decisive protest” to the ambassador over the creation of the center
- Moscow warned that this “will not remain without a corresponding response from the Russian side“
UN experts denounce Switzerland for sentencing students over Gaza protests
- “Peaceful student activism, on and off campus, is part of students’ rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and must not be criminalized,” the UN experts said
GENEVA: UN human rights experts said on Tuesday they had protested to Switzerland after a group of students was sentenced for trespassing after taking part in pro-Palestinian protests at a Swiss-funded university.
Around 70 students at the Swiss university ETH Zurich took part in a peaceful sit-in in May 2024 as part of student demonstrations in several cities during the Gaza war before being dispersed by police.
Students who took part in the protests were opposing the Swiss facility’s partnerships with Israeli universities, the UN experts said.
“Peaceful student activism, on and off campus, is part of students’ rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and must not be criminalized,” the UN experts said, adding that they had written to the Swiss government and the university to raise the issue.
A spokesperson for the Swiss Foreign Ministry confirmed it had received the message and that it would respond in due course. An ETH Zurich spokesperson did not immediately respond.
Five students have so far been sentenced for trespassing, resulting in suspended fines of up to 2,700 Swiss francs ($3,516), legal fees of over 2,000 Swiss francs and a criminal conviction on their records which could discourage future prospective employers, the UN experts said.
Ten others who appealed the charges await sentencing and two others were acquitted, they said.
