NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Friday, December 10, rejected Russia’s demand that NATO formally revoke the 2008 decision to open its doors to Georgia and Ukraine.
Jenss Stoltenbergs
Secretary General of NATO
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“NATO’s relations with Ukraine will be decided by NATO’s 30 Allies and Ukraine – and no one else. We cannot assume that Russia is trying to re-establish a system where great powers, such as Russia, have spheres of influence where they can control or decide what others can do. ”
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Russia also insisted that Moscow’s warranties against NATO’s non-expansion to the east were in the West’s “fundamental” interests when it demanded that the alliance not admit Ukraine and Georgia on Friday. Russia’s foreign ministry has also called for NATO to stop conducting military maneuvers near Russia’s borders, adding that these and other security proposals will be set out “shortly”.
The United States must officially close its doors to Georgia and Ukraine, which were promised in 2008 that they could become members of NATO in the future, the ministry said.
“It is in the fundamental interest of European security to formally abandon the decision of NATO’s 2008 Bucharest Summit that Ukraine and Georgia will become NATO members,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
By supporting the efforts of Ukraine and Georgia, NATO violates the fundamental principle of all OSCE participating States [citu valstu] at the expense of security, explained Moscow.
NATO must also ensure that weapons that could threaten Russia’s security are not deployed near Russia’s western borders, in NATO member states or elsewhere, the ministry said.
Moscow also said it wanted a “concrete” response from NATO on a number of earlier proposals, including a request to move military maneuvers beyond the “line of contact” between NATO and Russian forces.
Regular dialogue between Russian, US and NATO defense officials needs to be resumed.
Ukraine is not even close to joining NATO, but the United States is helping to train Ukraine’s armed forces and has pledged $ 2.5 billion to strengthen the army that suffered in Russia’s 2014 attack.-
Ukraine accuses Russia of preparing tens of thousands of troops for a possible large-scale attack on its neighbor, raising fears that fighting with Moscow-backed militant gangs in eastern Ukraine would escalate into an open war between the two countries.
Russia denies any plans to attack, accusing Ukraine and the United States of destabilizing behavior. At the same time, Moscow is demanding assurances that NATO will not continue to expand eastwards.
Ukraine, for its part, rejects such guarantees as illegal and seeks assurances that no agreement will be reached without its participation.
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