{"id":1642850,"date":"2022-09-16T13:08:49","date_gmt":"2022-09-16T17:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1642850"},"modified":"2022-09-16T13:11:27","modified_gmt":"2022-09-16T17:11:27","slug":"u-s-nato-need-to-turn-attention-to-black-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/u-s-nato-need-to-turn-attention-to-black-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S., NATO Need to Turn Attention to Black Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fu-s-nato-need-to-turn-attention-to-black-sea%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1642850&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div id=\"attachment_92003\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/154A2288-scaled.jpeg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-92003\" data-attachment-id=\"92003\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/news.usni.org\/2022\/02\/09\/3-more-russian-navy-amphibs-enter-the-black-sea\/154a2288\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/154A2288-scaled.jpeg\" data-orig-size=\"5472,3648\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{\" aperture \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-92003\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amphibious warship RTS Olenegorsky Gornyak (012) entering the Black Sea on Feb. 9, 2022. Photo by Y\u00f6r\u00fck I\u015f\u0131k\u200f used with permission<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>More strategic focus needs to be on the Black Sea as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, a panel of experts said during a Center for European Policy Analysis discussion Tuesday. <span id=\"more-97306\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The U.S. and NATO\u2019s lack of focus on the Black Sea allowed Russia to pursue aggressive goals, like its invasion into Ukraine, said Natia Seskuria, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think despite the strategic importance of the Black Sea and three littoral states being part of NATO, members of NATO, NATO still does not have a strict coherent strategy for the region,\u201d she said. \u201cBut the war in Ukraine has served almost sort of like a wake up call for the U.S. or NATO and we see that the process has started and there is a greater thinking, greater focus on the Black Sea region.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/cepa.org\/event\/russias-militarization-of-the-black-sea-region\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Center for European Policy Analysis<\/a> will release a report later this month that looks at the Black Sea approximately six and a half months into the Russian invasion into Ukraine. The report will include recommendations for how the United States can approach the body of water as a NATO member.<\/p>\n<p>It does not just fall on the U.S., Seskuria said, but also on Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria, all of which border the Black Sea. A shared regional leadership among the three countries would give NATO a better position when it comes to the Black Sea, she said.<\/p>\n[embedded content]\n<p>\u201cAnd one more important point is to continue the security assistance to countries, non-NATO countries, especially Georgia, Ukraine, that are facing existential threats and to make sure that NATO and the United States remain united when it comes to deterring Russia,\u201d she said.<br \/>Russia\u2019s initial strategy for the Black Sea was to block off Ukraine from the water, said Ivanna Kuz, program assistant for Transatlantic Defense and Security at CEPA. That would have given Russia the economic advantage and begin to turn the Black Sea into what one could consider a Russian lake, she said.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, the Ukrainian forces pushed back on Russia, and besides one early amphibious assault, the Russians have not used their ships to try to land their forces near coastal cities.<\/p>\n<p>Ukrainians were able to sink Russia\u2019s Black Sea Fleet flagships RTS <em>Moskva<\/em> (121)\u00a0and regain Snake Island, which helped prevent Russia from doing an amphibious assault on Odesa, she said. Attacking the Saky Airbase in Crimea also hurt the Russian Navy\u2019s ability to attack other countries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo the Black Sea is key to Ukraine\u2019s counter offensive in the South,\u201d Kuz said. \u201cIt\u2019s a central area that for Russia to gain more presence there and more control, it would threaten so many other parts of the world that the general public may not see that directly at first, but that would be the ultimate result.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since <em>Moskva<\/em>\u2019s sinking, the Russian Navy has mostly been hiding behind Crimea, said Ben Hodges, senior advisor with Human Rights First. That affects Russia\u2019s ability to control the body of water.<\/p>\n<p>The Black Sea has always been important to Russia, said Steven Horrell, senior fellow for transatlantic defense and security at CEPA. It\u2019ll stay that way regardless of the invasion\u2019s outcome.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s largely about the Black Sea region in the Russian mindset, and another strategic goal that spotlights the Black Sea for Russia, their desire to reclaim great power status,\u201d Horrell said. \u201cThey\u2019ve got this idea of a multipolar world, Russia and Eurasia, on par with the U.S. in the west and with China.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amphibious warship RTS Olenegorsky Gornyak (012) entering the Black Sea on Feb. 9, 2022. Photo by Y\u00f6r\u00fck I\u015f\u0131k\u200f used with permission<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1642852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1642850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1642850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1642850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1642850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1642852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1642850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1642850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1642850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}