NATO’s official position, like that of Washington and London, is that there is no sign of a Russian withdrawal from its own territory along the border with Ukraine, and therefore there’s a “new normal” of Russia becoming a permanent threat. NATO’s defense ministers, meeting in Brussels yesterday, have decided therefore to set in motion the process for creating and deploying additional battle groups to eastern and southeastern Europe. “Our military commanders will now work on the details and report back within weeks,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said during a press conference yesterday.
Otherwise, Stoltenberg, echoing President Joe Biden during his speech on Tuesday night (Feb. 15), promised that the alliance has no plans to deploy offensive systems in Ukraine. “But of course we cannot, we cannot compromise on the core principle that we have all subscribed to year after year and again, and again, starting with the Helsinki Final Act. And then in the Paris Accord, and then in the Astana Agreement and many other times, all countries in Europe including Russia, and also the United States and NATO Allies, have signed to agreements, treaties, stating that all countries can decide themselves, have the right to decide themselves, whether they want to be part of an alliance [such] as NATO or not.”
Moscow has repeatedly referred to those same documents also, but making the point, as Stoltenberg avoided doing, that they include the caveat that no nation can pursue its security at the expense of its neighbors.
