Meanwhile, Norway announced on Thursday that it was expelling 15 intelligence officers
working at the Russian embassy in Oslo, further straining relations between the neighbouring countries. Moscow called the decision extremely unfriendly
and vowed to respond. According to Norway`s Foreign Minister, the officers had been engaging in activities that were not compatible with their diplomatic status. The officers were declared personae non gratae and must leave shortly.
In another development, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged NATO to play a bigger role in Black Sea security and to integrate Ukraine`s air and missile defences with those of alliance members. He said that the Black Sea is instrumental for making the whole of Europe peaceful and future-oriented, and that it's time to turn the Black Sea into what the Baltic Sea has become, a sea of NATO. Moscow dismissed the remarks, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stating that the Black Sea can never be a NATO sea, adding that the sea must be a sea of cooperation, interaction, and security for all its littoral states.
Both Moscow and Kyiv rely on the Black Sea for trade, including supplying grain markets as two of the world`s biggest food exporters. A Russian blockade threatened to cause a global food crisis last year until the United Nations and Turkey brokered an accord to keep ports open, with diplomacy ongoing to extend it (Courtesy: Dawn.pk)
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