"We have considered the security situation in the Black Sea, which is of strategic importance," RIA Novosti quoted Stoltenberg.
According to him, "Russia continues to violate the territorial integrity of Georgia and Ukraine, continues to build up its military power in Crimea and is increasingly deploying forces in the Black Sea region."
The Secretary General said that "NATO is responding to this by strengthening its presence on land, at sea and in the air."
Earlier, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, noted that Crimea had passed the fate of becoming a training ground for NATO forces' maneuvers, which would have been "aimed" at Russia.
At the end of 2019, 63 member countries of the UN General Assembly supported the resolution of Ukraine on the "militarization of Crimea and Sevastopol."
As noted in the Russian Foreign Ministry, the resolution is based on unacceptable and unfounded accusations against Moscow.
Crimea became a Russian region after the 2014 referendum, in which most of the peninsula's residents were in favor of reunification with Russia.