Russia on Wednesday abruptly withdrew its application to dock three warships for refueling at a Spanish port, shortly after Spain’s partners in NATO urged Spain to turn away the vessels.
The ships are heading to the eastern Mediterranean Sea to support Russian military operations in Syria.
Russia’s intention to dock the three warships, which were said to include its only aircraft carrier, the Soviet-era Admiral Kuznetsov, at Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the north coast of Africa, was first reported in the Spanish news media on Tuesday evening.
The development set off alarm bells among the alliance defense ministers who gathered in Brussels on Wednesday for a two-day meeting and warned Spain not to let the Russian ships dock.
“We’d be extremely concerned that any NATO member should consider assisting a Russian carrier group that might end up bombing Syrian civilians,” British Secretary of State for Defense Michael Fallon told reporters. “On the contrary, NATO should be standing together.”
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters that while Russia had the right to operate in international waters, the situation at Ceuta was different because of concerns that the aircraft carrier group would mount strikes on the Syrian city of Aleppo.
“It is up to each nation to decide, as has been NATO policy for many years, but we are concerned about the potential use of this carrier group to increase attacks against civilians in Aleppo,” Stoltenberg said on Wednesday morning. “All allies are aware of our concerns.”
Less than three hours later, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation announced that Russia had withdrawn its request to dock the ships at Ceuta.
“The government of Spain is following with extraordinary concern the bombing of Aleppo and the humanitarian tragedy that is going on,” the ministry said.
The Spanish government had granted permission last month for three ships to call at Ceuta between today and Wednesday next week as part of what Spain said was the normal port-of-call practice for Russian ships, which had been in effect “for years.”
The Interfax news agency quoted Leonid Slutsky, head of Russia’s parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, as saying: “Moscow’s decision to recall the request for our military ships to enter the Spanish port of Ceuta is the only correct, unyielding and worthy one.”
Later on Wednesday, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement denying that Moscow had ever requested permission for the aircraft carrier to refuel at Ceuta. The ministry’s statement said that Russia had considered having three other warships call at the port, but that Spain had balked because of pressure from the US.
It was not immediately clear where the Russian ships would go instead to refuel. The nearest non-NATO ports to Ceuta are in Morocco and Algeria.
Russia sent the aircraft carrier and a group of supporting warships steaming toward the Mediterranean this month from bases on the Barents Sea, the Kremlin’s latest effort to demonstrate its military might.
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