The NATO summit declaration, issued following the heads-of-state meeting of the North Atlantic Council yesterday, is an exceptionally confrontational document that practically declares not only Russia, but also China, North Korea, and Iran to be enemies of the Alliance, all of which must be contained. Their crime, it seems, is that they all violate the “rules-based international order” which the Alliance has taken upon itself to enforce. One might even say that the declaration codifies President Joe Biden’s declaration in a July 5 interview with ABC News that “I’m running the world.”
Russia is, of course, considered criminal number one. Why? Because “Russia seeks to fundamentally reconfigure the Euro-Atlantic security architecture.” The declaration says further that “the all-domain threat Russia poses to NATO will persist into the long term.” Aside from the “invasion” of Ukraine, Russia’s other big crime is its “irresponsible nuclear rhetoric and coercive nuclear signaling,” along with its deploying of nuclear weapons to Belarus. These crimes “demonstrate a posture of strategic intimidation,” the declaration says. It blames Russia for the collapse of the international arms control and non-proliferation architecture while ignoring that it was the U.S. that walked away from the ABM Treaty, the INF Treaty, and the Open Skies Treaty. Russia’s third crime is its “aggressive hybrid actions against Allies, including through proxies, in a campaign across the Euro-Atlantic area.”
Together, these alleged crimes mean that Russia must be contained, or constrained. “We are determined to constrain and contest Russia’s aggressive actions and to counter its ability to conduct destabilizing activities towards NATO and Allies,” NATO promises. “For our next Summit, we will develop recommendations on NATO’s strategic approach to Russia, taking into account the changing security environment.”
North Korea and Iran “are fuelling Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine by providing direct military support to Russia, such as munitions and uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), which seriously impacts Euro-Atlantic security and undermines the global non-proliferation regime.”