Daily Archives: January 15, 2015

NATO to increase Baltic drills in response to Russia
NATO says it #39;s planning to increase its military exercises in the Baltic region. Breedlove made the remark in a visit to a NATO base in north-western Poland. He says the move is a response...

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Mc Menor do B1 - Maloqueiro Nato (PeronDJ) Lanamento 2015
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Mc Menor do B1 - Maloqueiro Nato (PeronDJ) Lanamento 2015 - Video

An interim force of German, Norwegian and Dutch troops has been deployed in Eastern Europe to respond to any security threat from the east, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday.

The new "high-readiness spearhead force" is in place for 2015, Stoltenberg said after calling on Russia to respect the sanctity of postwar borders in Europe and the core values on which the continent's democracies are based.

It was Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula 10 months ago that prompted the Western defense alliance to create the rapid-response force that will rotate troops into frontline states along Russia's borders.

Stoltenberg did not disclose the number of troops already deployed. The ultimate size of the force will be "several thousand troops" able to respond within a few days to any attack or security threat to a member state, NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said.

Ukraine is not a member of the 28-nation defense alliance and it pledged in 2010 to remain nonaligned. The Ukrainian parliament retracted that position late last year in a signal that it intends eventually to apply for NATO membership.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is staunchly opposed to what he sees as NATO encroachment into Moscow's traditional sphere of influence. He is also clearly displeased with Ukraine's moves toward eventual membership in the European Union. It was after a Kremlin-allied Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovich, was ousted by a pro-European rebellion that Russian troops seized Crimea and Russian arms and mercenaries began flowing into eastern Ukraine.

Putin denies Russia is involved in the fighting in Ukraine that has killed more than 4,700 people in nine months, and he has justified the "reunion" of Crimea with the Russian federation as correcting a historical wrong. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev deeded the territory that is home to the Russian Black Sea fleet to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1954.

Stoltenberg alluded to "the challenges we are facing to the east" during a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"We see that international law is violated, and that the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Ukraine is not respected. And we call on Russia to respect the Minsk agreements," Stoltenberg said.

He was referring to the Sept. 5 cease-fire signed in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, by Russia and Ukraine that set out a plan for halting artillery fire, withdrawing heavy weaponry, freezing the front lines and exchanging prisoners. The agreement has been repeatedly violated and few of its provisions fulfilled beyond a recent exchange of about 370 captives.

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NATO sends rapid-reaction forces to Russia's neighbors

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg urged Germany on a visit to Berlin Wednesday to mirror its leadership role in Europe as the bloc's biggest economy in its defence spending.

Describing Germany as a "staunch and important" NATO ally, Stoltenberg stressed the need for members of the US-led alliance to bump up investment amid challenges such as the Islamic State jihadist group or the Ukraine crisis.

"Germany is providing leadership in so many areas in Europe, but we are also looking for German leadership when it comes to investing in defence," the alliance chief told a joint press conference with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"We need to invest in our defence to be able to protect all our allies and to maintain the security and stability of Europe," the former Norwegian premier, who took over the NATO helm in October, added.

At a NATO summit in September in Wales dominated by the fallout from the Ukraine crisis, the 28 alliance leaders committed to increase defence spending to two percent of annual economic output within 10 years.

Meanwhile Stoltenberg welcomed German involvement in Afghanistan and developing a high-speed NATO reaction force.

Germany's Die Welt daily, which published an interview with Stoltenberg Tuesday, said that Berlin's defence expenditure was under the NATO target, at 1.3 percent of gross domestic product.

The NATO chief, in the interview, welcomed a nominal increase in German spending for 2015 but underscored that the US government had recently made one billion dollars available for safeguarding Europe.

Germany has faced criticism in the past over its perceived reluctance in foreign and security matters, and long faced calls for it to pull its weight in NATO and elsewhere on a par with its economic might.

Several political leaders last year called for Germany to take more responsibility in international crises.

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NATO chief urges Germany to lead way on defence spending

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and NATO chief, Jens Stoltenberg, called on Russia to respect the borders of Ukraine on Wednesday at a press conference in Berlin:

"We call on Russia to respect the Minsk agreements, to use all its influence on the separatists to make them respect the ceasefire and to withdraw the support for the separatists," Stoltenberg said.

"NATO does not seek confrontation with Russia. NATO aspires for a more constructive and cooperative relationship with Russia. But to be able to establish that, Russia must want it, too," he added.

Stoltenberg also praised the German involvement in NATO, stressing that Germany will play "the leading role" in establishing NATO's fast-response troops, which is the most important NATO response to the Ukraine crisis.

At the same time, however, the head of NATO pressed Germany to increase defense spending, saying the country needed to show more leadership given its strength and influence:

"Germany is such a key country in Europe, Germany has the strongest economy in Europe and Germany is providing leadership in so many areas in Europe," Stoltenberg said, "But we're also looking for German leadership when it comes to investing in defense because we need to invest in our defense to be able to protect all our allies and to maintain the security and stability of Europe," he emphasized.

No progress yet

Chancellor Merkel said that the four-party meeting about the Ukraine crisis, which was originally scheduled for this Thursday and then postponed, might still happen.

"We are not ready yet, but we will be working on it with all our might", she said. However, Merkel could not say when the meeting can be expected to take place, adding that it depends on all the parties. The meeting, which was supposed to happen in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, has been postponed on account of significant differences in opinion.

The foreign ministers of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine did not make any progress during a meeting in Berlin on Monday.

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Stoltenberg: "NATO doesn't want confrontation with Russia"

Published January 14, 2015

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a joint press conference as part of a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)(The Associated Press)

BERLIN NATO's secretary-general says a core version of the alliance's new agile expeditionary force is now operational.

Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday that the interim force is made up of troops from Germany, Norway, the Netherlands and "some others."

He says "an interim solution is in place and we are focused on a more permanent high-readiness force."

Stoltenberg says it's too early to say when the full permanent force will be in place or how it will be paid for, though it will have to be funded through a combination of NATO's budget and individual nations' contributions.

The "spearhead" force, conceived to be sent at short notice to aid at-risk members, was approved by NATO leaders in September amid concerns over Russia's actions in Ukraine.

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Interim rapid-response 'spearhead' now operational; unclear when permanent force ready