No country can mount a military challenge to the entire alliance

According to him, the main task of the SNMG-1 mission in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea is to monitor Russia’s activities in the region and guarantee the security of the countries of the Baltic Sea region.

Ruiz stated that in the current geopolitical conditions, “we must be ready to react if a NATO country is threatened.” In the opinion of the admiral, the security of the Baltic Sea region is most effectively ensured by the alliance’s ability to be ready to respond immediately to the most unexpected challenges, including technological ones.

“Russia may have military superiority over individual member states, but not the entire alliance, which is the format of 32 countries. I don’t see any country that can mount a military challenge to NATO,” Ruis emphasized, commenting on the statements of some Western experts that Russia has military superiority in the Baltic Sea .

The admiral also emphasized that the Baltic Sea is very important for NATO, and the military alliance is ready to defend the territories of all member states. At the same time, Ruis emphasized that the size of NATO’s naval forces in the Baltic Sea region is sufficient to fulfill its tasks.

Regarding concerns that NATO does not have the ability to deny Russia access to the Baltic Sea, Ruis said that NATO operates strictly within the law. And legally, all maritime nations must have access to their waters. Another thing is that NATO strictly monitors that no country performs illegal activities in the waters of other countries.

Ruiz also admitted that currently it is much more difficult for Russia to carry out any provocations in the territorial waters of NATO countries than before the war, because the alliance has significantly strengthened its monitoring.

Operating primarily in Northern European waters, the SNMG-1 is aimed at deterrence, collective defense, naval presence and enhanced naval interoperability. Ruiz is the commander of SNMG-1 from January to mid-July this year.