NATO leaders began a videoconference summit on Friday in which they will discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the next steps they will take to strengthen transatlantic security.
“Russia has shattered peace on the European continent,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during his initial speech at the beginning of the allied summit, convened urgently given the seriousness of the situation in Ukraine.
According to the Norwegian politician, what they had been warning about for months has happened, “despite all our efforts to find a diplomatic solution.”
“We condemn the Russian aggression in the strongest possible terms and call on Russia to immediately cease its military action,” he emphasized, while making it clear that they support the “brave people of Ukraine” and the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, its right to defend themselves and to choose their own path.
The allied secretary general stressed that Moscow “bears full responsibility” for this “deliberate, cold-blooded and long-planned” invasion.
Stoltenberg convened this meeting at the highest level the day before, after Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to start the invasion of Ukraine from several fronts, after having recognized the independence of the self-styled republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, in eastern Ukraine. .
The 30 allied leaders and their counterparts from Finland and Sweden, as well as the presidents of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and of the European Council, Charles Michel, participate in the meeting.
On Thursday, the North Atlantic Council, NATO’s highest decision-making body, met in an emergency.
Up to eight allies (Romania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Poland) had requested consultations invoking article 4 of the Washington Treaty, a document that constituted the Alliance and that activates these conversations when they consider their territorial integrity threatened, the political independence or security of any of its members.
At that meeting, the allied ambassadors agreed to activate the organization’s defense plans at the request of NATO’s top military commander, General Tod Wolters, which will allow them to deploy capabilities and forces, including the NATO Response Force -of some 40,000 troops – wherever they are needed.
Stoltenberg said yesterday that “we have no NATO troops in Ukraine and we have no plans to send them to Ukraine,” but that they nevertheless have to “give NATO allies guarantees by increasing our presence” in the eastern part of the Alliance. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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