The leaders of NATO, meeting in their summit In Vilnius, Lithuania, yesterday, issued a communiqué which is a Hobbsian 90-paragraph nightmare of lies appointing NATO as the arbiter of the “rules-based international order.” Anyone who deviates from that order, defined only as being in accordance with the UN Charter, is thus deemed a threat which NATO must “deter” or otherwise counter. The number one threat defined by the communiqué is, not surprisingly, Russia.
“Peace in the Euro-Atlantic area has been shattered,” the communiqué declares in paragraph 5. “The Russian Federation has violated the norms and principles that contributed to a stable and predictable European security order. The Russian Federation is the most significant and direct threat to Allies’ security and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area.”
“Russia bears full responsibility for its illegal, unjustifiable, and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine, which has gravely undermined Euro-Atlantic and global security and for which it must be held fully accountable,” it goes on later, never mentioning NATO’s expansion right up to Russia’s borders. “We continue to condemn in the strongest terms Russia’s blatant violations of international law, the Charter of the United Nations, and OSCE commitments and principles. We do not and will never recognise Russia’s illegal and illegitimate annexations, including Crimea.”
Given that logic, what comes next is no surprise: “Russia must immediately stop this illegal war of aggression, cease its use of force against Ukraine, and completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its forces and equipment from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders, extending to its territorial waters. We urge all countries not to provide any kind of assistance to Russia’s aggression and condemn all those who are actively facilitating Russia’s war.” And of course, it endorses Zelensky’s “peace formula,” that requires Russian capitulation even before negotiations can begin.
