NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenbergwarned this Thursday of the current “dangerous time” for Europegiven the Russian military buildup around Ukraineand warned that the warning time of a possible Moscow attack on Kiev “is shrinking.”
“This is a dangerous time for European security. The number of Russian forces is increasing. The warning time of a possible attack is being reduced”, declared the politician during a press conference together with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, with whom he met today at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels.
Stoltenberg announced that he has today sent a letter to the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, in which invites you to continue the dialogue “in a series of meetings of the NATO-Russia Council”, the meeting forum between the two parties, “to find a diplomatic way forward”.
He insisted that NATO “not a threat to Russia”but urged “be prepared for the worst”, while remaining strongly committed to finding a political solution.
He stated that yes Russia opts for “confrontation, it will pay a high price”with economic sanctions and more NATO military presence on the Alliance’s eastern flank, despite the fact that the Kremlin calls for NATO to move away from Russia’s borders.
The Secretary General of the Alliance recalled that Russia has already amassed more than 100,000 combat-ready soldiers around Ukraine.
“And we are closely monitoring Russia’s deployment in Belarus, which is the largest since the end of the Cold War,” he added.
Precisely today, the armed forces of Russia and Belarus began the joint military exercises Allied Determination-2022, which are taking place on Belarusian territory and will last until the next day 20.
Stoltenberg affirmed that the Alliance is “prepared to listen to Russia’s concerns” and indicated that NATO has proposed mutual briefings on nuclear exercises and policies, ways to increase transparency and reduce risks in military activities, ways to reduce cyber threats or a “serious” conversation on arms control.
“But NATO will not compromise fundamental principles: the right of each nation to choose its own path and NATO’s ability to protect and defend all allies”, he asserted, despite the fact that Moscow asks NATO to give up the possibility of Ukraine becoming a member of the organization in the future.
He announced that next week’s Alliance Defense Ministers’ meeting will discuss “options to further strengthen allied security,” which, he explained, includes the possibility of deploying combat groups in NATO’s southeast, such as those found in Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania since 2017.
The British Prime Minister said that there is a moment “very dangerous” and that one must “resist and oppose any return to the days when the destiny of nations” was decided by “a handful of great powers”.
“If we can maintain a strong adherence to the fundamental principles that define our Alliance and combine strong deterrence with patient diplomacy, then we can find a way through the crisis, but the stakes are high and this is a very dangerous time.” , he exposed.
In Johnson’s opinion, a decision has not yet been made in Moscow on whether or not to invade Ukraine, but this “does not mean that it is impossible that something absolutely disastrous could happen very soon”, and he warned that it is “the greatest crisis of security that Europe has faced in decades”.
Johnson also considered that there is more and more unity between the allies and congratulated the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, for “the way in which he has been able to move towards a tougher position on Nord Stream 2”, the pipeline that transports natural gas Russian through the Baltic Sea directly to Western Europe, bypassing the Ukraine. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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