Russia summons German ambassador over NATO Baltic Sea base: Ministry

Russia’s foreign ministry on Tuesday said it had summoned Germany’s ambassador over to protest over a new NATO naval command center on the Baltic Sea.

Germany on Monday inaugurated the center to boost defense readiness in the Baltic Sea region as Russia pursues its Ukraine offensive.

The Russian ministry said it expressed a “decisive protest” to the ambassador over the creation of the center in Rostock.

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 also 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 in the port city of Rostock will be led by a German admiral and manned by staff from 11 other NATO countries.

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,” according to the German defense forces, according to Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.