Stoltenberg: Spanish Patriot missiles to stay in Turkey for another year

Baku. 9 February. REPORT.AZ/ NATO has agreed to keep Spanish Patriot missile batteries in the southern province of Adana for another year to protect Turkey from potential threats from neighboring Syria.Commenting on the expiration of the Spanish unit's mission next month, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday, Report informs referring to the Turkish media.

Stoltenberg recently said that NATO allies are seeking to send aircraft and command ships to Turkey in an attempt to boost the country's defense capabilities. The U.K. will provide aircraft to Turkey's İncirlik Air Base in Adana while Germany and Denmark will supply command ships to NATO forces in the Mediterranean. Spain is also providing Patriot missile batteries in southern Turkey. While NATO has increased air defenses for Turkey for many years, Turkey's downing of the Russian warplane that violated its airspace on Nov. 24 has drummed up NATO support.

"This is something we have been working on long before the incident and is separate from the incident," Stoltenberg told reporters following a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels. "I think the focus now should be on how we can de-escalate, how we can calm tensions and how we can address the need to improve, strengthen mechanisms to avoid that kind of incidents that we saw last week," Stoltenberg said.