This evening, however, Russia's ambassador to Ireland said the exercises would be moved.
Yury
Filatov said in a statement: "In response to the requests from the
Irish government as well as from the Irish South and West Fish
Producer's Organisation, the Minister of Defence of the Russian
Federation Sergey Shoigu has made a decision, as a gesture of goodwill,
to relocate the exercises by the Russian Navy, planned for February 3-8,
outside the Irish exclusive economic zone (EEZ), with the aim not to
hinder fishing activities by the Irish vessels in the traditional
fishing areas."
Brendan Byrne of the Irish Fish Processors & Exporters Association
told Sky News that he "welcomed the sensible decision", and said that it
was "a great boost for the fishing industry.
Mr Byrne said that the Russians "may have miscalculated" in organising
exercises in a lucrative fishing ground, and that "the Irish fishing
industry wasn't going to back down." He said his organisation is now
calling for a 10-year moratorium on naval exercises by any country
within Ireland's EEZ, for ecological and fishing reasons.
Ireland's minister for foreign affairs Simon Coveney tweeted: "This
week I wrote to my counterpart, the Minister of Defence of Russia, to
request a reconsideration of naval exercises off the Irish coast.
"This
evening I received a letter confirming the Russian exercises will be
relocated outside of Ireland's EEZ. I welcome this response."
The
planned naval exercises, against the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis and
with the strident response of Irish fishermen, had captured
international media attention.
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