The NATO-Russia agreement signed 25 years ago no longer binds the Alliance because Russia itself violated the agreement by invading Ukraine, says NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea GeoanÄ, visiting Vilnius.
Under the 1997 NATO-Russia Framework Agreement, NATO has pledged not to permanently deploy significant forces in central and eastern Europe, including the Baltic states.
However, Russia has committed to refrain from aggression against its neighbours and is not complying, GeoanÄ told BNS in an interview on Sunday.
As a result, he said, the Alliance is no longer bound by restrictions on the expansion of forces in its eastern flank.
âRussia has basically abolished any content of this founding act,â GeoanÄ said in Vilnius. âIt has taken decisions, it has made commitments not to commit aggression against its neighbours, which it does, and to consult regularly with NATO, which it does not.â
Plenary session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Vilnius / D. Umbrasas/LRT
Russia has essentially withdrawn from the agreement, according to GeoanÄ, âso now we no longer face any constraints to have a strong NATO presence in the eastern flank and to make sure that every square inch of NATOâs territory is protected by NATOâs Article Five and our allies.â
In response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, NATO is considering how to reinforce its members close to Russia.
The Baltic countries are asking for international battalions to be replaced by brigade-sized units several times larger than those deployed there since 2017.
GeoanÄ said that the Allianceâs presence in the region would be strengthened in various spheres, but the specific size of the force is not clear.
Final decisions will be made at the NATO summit in Madrid, he said.
âWe understand the interest in quantity, but we also want to emphasise quality. We expect very important decisions from our leaders in Madrid,â said the deputy secretary general of NATO.
A new Strategic Concept for the Alliance is due to be adopted at the NATO Summit in Madrid in June.
flappers87 on May 30th, 2022 at 15:54 UTC »
So I'm in Poland, in one of the main cities, and lately we've been hearing more jets flying over, going east.
Thing is, usually when we hear jets, we see their transponders on sites like flightradar24.com, but lately? There's nothing on these websites.
We do have a military base nearby (like many cities here), but again, you can usually see these on the flight tracking websites when they are just burning fuel during the summer, so they can keep the same budget for next year.
bannacct56 on May 30th, 2022 at 14:44 UTC »
NATO is a defensive organization to contain Russia, now that Russia is being aggressive invading countries it's time to get into defensive mode, we're not friends anymore, we don't actually like you and we're going to put a whole bunch of soldiers on the border so that if you come in we are going to kick you in the balls repeatedly, that's perfectly logical and pretty much what NATO's for.
autotldr on May 30th, 2022 at 14:00 UTC »
This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 59%. (I'm a bot)
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