Increasing military cooperation between Georgia and NATO may negatively affect the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Collective Security Treaty Organization's (CSTO) Joint Staff chief Anatoly Sidorov told reporters on Thursday.

He recalled that thanks to the mediation of Russia, hostilities on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh were stopped and the process of resolving the crisis began, TASS reported.

"The factor that can negatively affect the development of the situation in the region is the buildup of military cooperation between Georgia and NATO," Sidorov said.

He noted that following the meetings of the leaders of Georgia and NATO in Brussels in 2020, the so-called significant package of NATO-Georgia measures was supplemented, and an agreement was reached to increase in 2021 the number of combat training events, the number of visits of the alliance ships to Georgian ports and financial assistance to Tbilisi to bring the Georgian Armed Forces to NATO standards.

"The issue of strengthening the US military presence in the region is also being considered, including to ensure control of the airspace over the territory of the republic and the Black Sea," Sidorov noted. "This military activity will help maintain tension in the Caucasus and reduce the level of regional security," he added.