After four hours of talks in Brussels, Wednesday’s
\nNATO-Russia Council yielded no concrete measures with a view to solving the
\nmilitary crisis generated by Moscow and its alleged security claims. Russia
\nsays it has no intention to invade Ukraine, but it wants to stop NATO
\nenlargement and the withdrawal of Allied forces from Central and Eastern European
\ncountries that joined NATO after 1997. According to NATO Secretary General,
\nJens Stoltenberg, the round of talks in Brussels proved useful to both parties,
\nalthough the Allies have rejected the possibility of compromising on any of the
\nAlliance’s fundamental principles, including the territorial integrity of every
\nEuropean country. Accordingly, Russia was told that any negotiation regarding
\nits request to prevent NATO from expanding would be ruled out. It was also
\ngiven a firm no regarding its call for NATO to withdraw its troops from
\nEastern members, which would virtually leave the area vulnerable. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In fact,
\nSecretary Stoltenberg explained that the whole idea of defense and deterrence,
\nincluding NATO’s exercises and presence on the eastern flank, have been in
\nresponse to Russia’s growing aggressiveness and its obvious willingness to use
\narmed force to modify the borders of neighboring states. In this context,
\nMoscow was told that, should it invade Ukraine again, the Allies this time will
\nprovide military support to Kiev, instead of just passing sanctions against the
\nRussian Federation. Therefore, NATO has again called on Russia to pull out its
\nsoldiers deployed on the Ukrainian border in recent months. The only possible
\nconcession to Moscow would be for NATO not to deploy certain missile systems in
\nEurope. Romanian Mircea Geoan\u0103, NATO deputy secretary general,
\nexplained that the anti-ballistic missile shield facilities set up in Romania
\nand Poland do not fall under the same category.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
They serve no offensive purpose against the Russian
\nFederation, which is why they will be excluded from any possible agreement.
\nConversely, the Russian Federation has mobilized a wide variety of ballistic
\nsystems and other types of equipment, including state-of-the-art technology,
\nclose to NATO borders. This is a major concern for us. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In Romania, at the annual meeting of diplomats held in
\nBucharest, president Klaus Iohannis said boosting the US military presence in
\nRomania remains a key objective in the face of growing security challenges.
\nRomania needs a stronger deterrence and defense posture, and the recent
\nsecurity developments have showed they risk affecting Euro-Atlantic space as
\nwell. The president used this point to stress the importance of trans-Atlantic
\nrelations. (VP)<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NATO and Russia maintain major differences regarding security in Europe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":90867,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[40447,39462,40438,40446],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-90866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-deterrence-and-defense","tag-eastern-flank","tag-nato-russia-council","tag-security-developments"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n