NATO Defense Ministers met to address Russia’s continued military build-up in and around Ukraine and other concerns
NATO Defence Ministers met to address Russia’s continued military build-up in and around Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on the first day of NATO Defence Ministers’ meetings in Brussels.
He termed the threat of Russian invasion “the biggest concentration of forces in Europe since the Cold War.”
NATO Allies have made clear that further Russian aggression against Ukraine would have a high cost and called out Russia’s actions, plans and disinformation. But at the same time, NATO remains prepared for dialogue. “It is not too late for Russia to step back from the brink of conflict. And choose the path of peace” NATO chief said.
The NATO allies welcomed all diplomatic efforts for de-escalation and and signs of diplomacy from Moscow. But Stoltenberg said that “so far, we do not see any sign of de-escalation on the ground. No withdrawals of troops or equipment. What we see today is that Russia maintains a massive invasion force ready to attack.”
The defense ministers also held a regular meeting of the Nuclear Planning Group and considered worrying developments across the world including “Russia’s and China’s modernization of their nuclear arsenals and the continued risk of nuclear proliferation.” The European allies also consulted on how to keep our nuclear deterrent safe, secure and effective.
America’s commitment to NATO remains ironclad
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the NATO defense ministers’ meeting comes at an important time as Russia continues building up their military presence along Ukraine’s borders, including in Crimea and Belarus and in the Black Sea. In many ways, this brings Russian troops right up to NATO’s doorstep. In a press conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Lloyd said that “America’s commitment to NATO and to Article 5 remains ironclad.” He said that President Biden has clarified that “we will, if we must, defend every inch of NATO territory.”
“The Russians say that they are withdrawing some of those forces now that exercises are complete, but we don’t see that. Quite the contrary, we see them add to the more than 150,000 troops that they already have arrayed on that border even in the last couple of days. We see some of those troops inch closer to that border. We see them fly in more combat and support aircraft. We see them sharpen their readiness in the Black Sea. We even see them stocking up their blood supplies.”
He said that U.S. and its allies “will watch for the so-called false-flag operations where Russia manufactures a dramatic event to justify an attack, a play that we’ve seen them run in the past, and we will continue to explore ways to enhance our readiness as the United States and others have done with additional troop deployments to NATO’s eastern flank.”
President Joe Biden said on February 17 that the threat of a Russian invasion remains “very high”, adding that “We have reason to believe that they are engaged in a false-flag operation to have an excuse to go in,” Biden said of Russian forces.
