More Russian ships escorted off North Sea; NATO calls Russia a threat to alliance

In the days before the NATO summit in The Hague, the Dutch Navy intercepted three more Russian ships in the North Sea and escorted them away. The Ministry of Defense reported this on Wednesday, the same day that the NATO countries called Russia a threat to the alliance in the closing speech to the summit.

The Zr. Ms. Van Amstel escorted a Kilo II-class submarine away from the North Sea on Tuesday, Defense said. On Tuesday, the Van Amstel escorted a Steregushchiy-class corvette on its way, and on Friday, a Russian frigate was sent away from Dutch waters.

Russian ships are often spotted in the North Sea, outside territorial waters, and often suspiciously near vital infrastructure. On Friday, caretaker Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said that the Dutch Armed Forces had already escorted 40 Russian ships away this year.

In the final statement of the NATO summit in The Hague, the member states explicitly called Russia a threat to “Euro-Atlantic” security. According to ANP, there was a lot of bickering about this statement in the run-up to the summit as the United States believed that Russia mainly threatened Europe, not itself.

Many European countries insisted on including that exact wording in the final declaration, and convinced the United States to agree by linking it to the demand to increase defense spending to 5 percent of the economy, an important point for U.S. president Donald Trump. They told the U.S. that this was the only way European governments could explain the higher spending to citizens, senior diplomats told the news wire.

By the time the NATO meeting ended, the member states agreed to increase the NATO standard for defense spending to 5 percent of the GDP, and Russia was officially named a threat to the entire alliance.