NATO will continue to build up its presence on the eastern flank of the alliance, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on February 24.
“We will continue to increase our presence in the eastern part of the alliance,” Stoltenberg said on CNN.
He recalled that the North Atlantic Alliance had already increased the presence of forces on the eastern side over the past weeks and months “to prevent an attack on NATO territory.”
Earlier Thursday, US President Joe Biden said he did not intend to send troops to Ukraine. At the same time, the American leader explained that the United States is deploying additional troops to Germany in order to ensure the security of NATO countries.
Earlier in the day, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, head of the German Bundestag Defense Committee, said that there would be no military confrontation between NATO and Russia, but there would be tough economic sanctions.
During the Munich Security Conference, which was held from February 18 to 20, Strack-Zimmerman noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not afraid of NATO and its weapons. She also said that NATO would not supply allies with heavy weapons because of the situation in Ukraine, as it was unlikely to “cause Putin’s concern” or “enhance Ukraine’s military resilience.”
The fact that there are no forces of the North Atlantic Alliance on the territory of Ukraine was announced on February 24 by the Secretary General of the Alliance. He noted that support is being provided to Ukraine, but firm security guarantees are provided only to NATO allies. At the same time, the alliance will continue to contact the Russian Federation to resolve the conflict.
At the same time, on February 21, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, during an extraordinary meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, said that Western countries were not ready to accept Moscow’s proposals on non-expansion of NATO.
As Russian Ambassador to Poland Sergei Andreev clarified in an interview with Izvestia, Russia considers the buildup of foreign military presence in the countries of NATO’s “eastern flank” unreasonable and dangerous for this part of Europe. He drew attention to the fact that the permanent deployment of substantial alliance forces on Polish territory “runs counter to the 1997 Russia-NATO Founding Act.”
On February 18, the German edition of Der Spiegel published an archival document containing information about NATO’s non-expansion to the east. We are talking about the minutes of the meeting of the heads of the foreign affairs agencies of the United States, Great Britain, France and the Federal Republic of Germany, held in Bonn on March 6, 1991.
Source: IZ
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
