Italy will send 140 troops to
Latvia in the coming months to "participate in the Canadian-led
NATO force" there, Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Friday.
Moscow blasted the announcement that Italy will station
troops near to its border.
"NATO's policy is destructive," Russian foreign ministry
spokesperson Maria Zakharova told ANSA.
"The alliance is engaged in constructing new lines of
division in Europe, instead of deep, solid relations of good
neighbours".
But Gentiloni said that the decision was not an act of
aggression.
"It is not a policy of aggression towards Russia, but of
reassurance and defence of our borders as an alliance,"
Gentiloni told a joint news conference with NATO Secretary
General Jens Stoltenberg.
"This decision does not influence in the slightest the
line of dialogue (with Russia) that Italy has always proposed
and shared with NATO".
The decision was taken months ago as part of the country's
contribution to the alliance in the Baltic states, Gentiloni
said.
He added that it had nothing to do with the current
tensions in Syria, after the West's criticism of Moscow's role
in the conflict there, and did not amount to a suspension in
dialogue with Russia.
Italian Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti specified that
the move was agreed at a NATO summit in Warsaw in July.
The summit had agreed to form a NATO contingent as part of
a project to boost the eastern borders of the North Atlantic
Alliance.
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