Category Archives: NATO

(CNN) -

NATO has scrambled fighter jets more than 400 times this year to intercept Russian military flights close to alliance members' airspace in Europe, the alliance's secretary general said this week.

That's a 50 percent increase in Russian air activity over last year and the kind of activity that harkens back to the days of the Cold War, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said during a visit to NATO member Estonia on Thursday.

"This pattern is risky and unjustified. So NATO remains vigilant. We are here. And we are ready to defend all allies against any threat," he said at Amari Airbase in Estonia, where U.S., German and Estonian troops were gathered.

Stoltenberg said few of the Russian flights had actually violated the airspace of NATO nations, but he said the way the Russian planes operate threatens civilian aviation in the region.

"They are not filing their air flight plans. They are not turning on the transponders. And they are not communicating with the civilian air traffic control," he said.

"We are calling on Russia to conduct their military air activities in a responsible way and respecting international norms for this kind of air activity," Stoltenberg said.

In a report earlier this month, the European Leadership Network listed more than 40 "close military encounters between Russia and the West" that took place in the eight months from March to October of this year.

Three of those, including a near collision between a Russian military plane and a Swedish passenger aircraft carrying 132 people, were classified as "high-risk" incidents that could have led to direct military confrontation between Russia and the West, according to the report, titled "Dangerous Brinksmanship."

Russia also has said it will expand its military flights, with Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu saying this month that Russian military aircraft would be flying along U.S. coasts and even into the Gulf of Mexico.

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AP Photo/Misha Japaridze, File In this, Aug. 11, 2012 file photo, a Russian MiG-29 plane flies during a celebration marking the Russian air force's 100th anniversary in Zhukovsky, outside Moscow, Russia. NATO said Thursday there have been around 400 intercepts of Russian military flights near its member countries this year, amid heightened tension between Moscow and the West over the Ukraine crisis.

"If you look at the number of intercepts around NATO, we can talk about 400 intercepts, 50 percent more than last year," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in western Estonia.

"Most of these flights are taking place in an international airspace, but they are close to our airspace, and they are interfering with commercial flights.

"It is a pattern that we haven't seen for many years, back to the time of the Cold War."

He spoke from the Amari air base that hosts the Western defence alliance's air policy mission over the Baltic states, following talks with Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Roivas.

It was his first stop on a tour of the three Baltic states that were once ruled from Moscow and which, like fellow newer NATO member Poland, have been deeply concerned by Russia's actions in Ukraine.

The West believes Russia is pulling the strings in the deadly seven-month conflict between pro-Western government forces and pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's east -- an accusation the Kremlin denies.

Stoltenberg said NATO had seen "more than 100 intercepts, which is three times more than last year" around the Baltic region alone, but reiterated that the alliance would protect its members.

"It is all for one and one for all," he said.

He later travelled to Latvian capital Riga, where he reacted to Russia's Wednesday call for Ukraine to stay out of the NATO alliance.

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NATO reports 400 intercepts of Russian aircraft in 2014