NATO and the war in Ukraine
The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to concern the North Atlantic Alliance and the member countries
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România Internațional, 12.02.2024, 14:00
The situation has
become routine already:
whenever
the Russian invasion troops are attacking the Ukrainian ports on the Danube at
Reni, Izmail and the big port-city of Odessa heads-up are also given in
neighboring Romania, a NATO and EU member country. Ro-Alert messages were issue at
the end of last week for the counties of Tulcea and Galati, over the Danube,
the first of this kind this year, the inspectorate for emergency situations has
announced. People have been cautioned about the possibility of falling objects
from the sky and they have been advised to take measures of protection and
prevention.
Many of the
residents have reported on social networks long and powerful blasts. But a
different kind of noise has produced among the North Atlantic Alliance, the
former US Republican president Donald Trump, whose comeback to the White House has
become more and more plausible. Even his Republican colleagues have criticized
him after he said the United States should not defend the allied countries
which do not pay their NATO contributions.
The former
president also criticized the countries which do not invest enough money in
their defence in the past years as well, but now he shocked the allies by
saying that he would ‘encourage’ Russia to attack countries, which do not pay
their bills. His statements have attracted a lot of heat from the incumbent
Democratic President Joe Biden and NATO Secretary General Jens
Stoltenberg, who underlined that such suggestions are
undermining the Alliance’s entire security, which is based upon common defence
and are endangering the US and European troops.
According to various publications, Trump has for years now inaccurately described the way in which NATO funding
is functioning. The alliance has established a 2% of the GDP target for each
member country and most countries do not clear this target. The figure though
is only a recommendation and not a mandatory contract, no ‘bills’ have been
issued and no bills are overdue concerning the NATO budget.
In the meantime, on Sunday, the Alliance’s newest member, Finland elected
a new president in the person of the former conservative Prime Minister
Alexander Stubb who has been a supporter of the North Atlantic Alliance after
Russia invaded Ukraine and his country renounced its strict neutrality. A Prime
Minister between 2014 and 2015, Stubb has confessed that one of his biggest mistakes as head of the government in
Helsinki was to give the green light for the construction of a nuclear power
plant in cooperation with the Russian company Rosatom.
Romanian president Klaus Iohannis has
immediately congratulated his Finnish counterpart voicing his eager readiness
for cooperation and the development of the tight European partnership between
Romania and Finland, to defend together their Euro-Atlantic values.
(bill)
