The NATO Secretary-General described the “positive sign” Jens Stoltenberg Moscow’s desire to enter into a dialogue with the Council NATO – Russia, Will meet Wednesday in Brussels. However, in an interview with the Financial Times, Stoltenberg said that NATO was “ready for an armed conflict in Europe” if the talks failed.
“We will listen to Russia’s concerns,” he said. Olga Stefanisina, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, of the North Atlantic Coalition, in an earlier statement in Brussels. He said, however, that a precondition for the dialogue to be meaningful was to show on the other hand that it was listening to NATO’s concerns about Russian action near the border with Ukraine.
“Any new aggression against Ukraine will incur higher economic and political costs,” Stoltenberg said, reiterating the firm message of the Alliance and the European Union. In recent weeks. He said today’s meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Joint Commission was aimed at “coordinating” the two sides ahead of diplomatic relations with Russia.
Mrs. Stefanisina also stood at this point in his own statements, reminding Ukraine that nothing should be decided without his participation. Russia, a Ukrainian official, has called on its country to “try to impose its agenda” and “surrender unconditionally”, “undermining the basic principles of democracy and the functioning of NATO.” It concluded by expressing its support for diplomatic relations with Russia, calling for “everything possible to prevent a new Russian invasion.”
In response to Moscow, when asked if NATO would like to begin negotiations to join Kiev, the Secretary-General reiterated: “We will never give up from the beginning that every country in Europe has the right to do as it pleases.” The right to self-determination in defense and security policy has been “a fundamental principle of European security for decades,” he said.
“Only 30 members of Ukraine and NATO will decide when Ukraine is ready to join the alliance. No one else has an opinion on this,” she concluded. .
It is recalled that the conditions set by Russia on December 17 to defuse the crisis were a guarantee that NATO’s expansion – especially to the East – would not last.
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