John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the ambassador for accepting the invitation and for being here. He is welcome. I also thank him for agreeing to meet with me last week. Much of what I will say here will echo what I said to the ambassador directly last week. Given my concerns and those of my party about not only the maritime exercise planned off Ireland's south-western coast but also the escalating crisis on the Russia-Ukraine border, what we need now is some calm. We need a de-escalation of the current crisis. Unfortunately, we continue to see more sabre-rattling on all fronts. As we sit here, joint military exercises are taking place between Russia and Belarus. The Neptune Strike 2022 maritime exercise is also taking place in the Mediterranean, and encompasses the entire Sixth Fleet of the US Navy. There was also, of course, the planned exercise by Russia, which has now, thankfully, been moved out of the Irish exclusive economic zone. Today, as well, 3,000 more NATO troops have been deployed by the US to Poland, Germany and Romania. Therefore, when I call for a de-escalation of the current crisis, I direct that call at everybody involved, including NATO and Russia.

Sinn Féin has been committed to Irish neutrality and I spoke to the ambassador last week about what we see that as representing. It is active neutrality, and that means not having the UK's Royal Air Force, RAF, policing our skies, the US using Shannon Airport, or, indeed, Russia using perceived weaknesses in our defence capabilities to carry out maritime exercises. Therefore, neutral means neutral. Regarding individual nations, we support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations according to their internationally-recognised borders. That was borne out in a UN resolution passed by the General Assembly in 2014, which Ireland supported. The resolution spoke to the territorial integrity of Ukraine and it must be central to diplomatic efforts to resolve what is, unfortunately, an escalating crisis. Equally, the Minsk agreements must also be central to the situation. Unfortunately, those have not been ratified.

I have several specific questions for the ambassador. I ask him to give an assurance that Russia is prepared to work through all available platforms to attempt to find the means to de-escalate the current crisis. In addition, it was notable that he made no reference to the planned maritime exercise off our south-western coast. It is, of course, welcome that the exercise has been moved out of our exclusive economic zone and into international waters, but I would have much preferred to have seen the exercise being cancelled completely and not just moved. I refer to a broader attempt to de-escalate the crisis. I thank the ambassador for listening to the Irish people, the Irish fishermen, me, the Government and everybody who has serious concerns regarding the planned exercise.

I want the ambassador to clarify what date the Russian Federation first notified the Irish authorities of its intention to carry out military exercises in the exclusive economic zone. When were the Irish authorities first notified of that? I would also like him to clarify, in the context of the originally planned exercise in the Irish exclusive economic zone, if and when the Irish authorities highlighted to him or to the Russian Federation that the Irish authorities first needed to make a determination on the proposed exercise in accordance with Article 6(3) of the EU Habitats Directive and Irish regulations.

Given the close proximity of transatlantic cables between Ireland and America to the original site of the planned exercise, would the ambassador agree that the location first chosen could be viewed as provocative? If he does not agree it was a provocation, why was that exact site chosen for the original naval manoeuvres? Would the ambassador agree that such an action could be viewed as an attempt to exploit vulnerabilities in the defence capabilities of Ireland aimed at sending a message to both the EU and NATO? Was Russia choosing to exploit our weaknesses as a neutral country to send a message to the EU and NATO? I would appreciate it if the ambassador could answer those points.