NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Sunday said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a “new reality” that should trigger a “reset” of the alliance’s deterrence and defense.
In an interview on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Stoltenberg said the invasion forced the alliance to face “a new secure reality.”
“Regardless of how this conflict now ends, we are faced with a new reality, a new security reality, where Russia more openly contests core values for our security and are willing to use military force to achieve its objectives,” he said.
“Therefore, we need to reset our deterrence on events and start discussing in NATO next week in Brussels is how we do the more long-term adaptation, long-term reset on defense.
Particularly worrisome is the possibility of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin resorting to nuclear weapons.
“President Putin is knowledgeable of the dangers that are nuclear,” he added.
“The United States have now 100,000 troops in Europe, and there are tens of thousands of troops in the eastern part of the alliance to send the message that escalation beyond Ukraine will be met with a very firm response from the whole alliance.”
“By doing that, we are preventing conflict, not provoking conflict in Europe,” he asserted.
According to Stoltenberg, Russia’s use of chemical weapons would be a “blatant and brutal violation” of international law.
“At the same time we know that Russia has used chemical agents in Europe before against their own political opponents, and Russia has been facilitating supporting the regime in Syria where chemical weapons has been used,” he said.
“This is something we take extremely serious, but at the same time we are very much aware that we need to act in a way that prevents this conflict from going from being an ugly, horrific conflict in Ukraine to something that turns out to be a full-fledged war between NATO and Russia in Europe and also potentially involving, of course, the United States. That will be extremely dangerous and is exactly what we need to prevent.”
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Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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