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The US and Nato are united in rejecting Russia’s demands. Photo/Illustration
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blink and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Russia could not determine who should be allowed to join the bloc. They also warned Russia of a strong response to further military intervention in Ukraine.
The second statement is a complete rejection of a significant part of the demands of the Russian President Vladimir Putin to ease tensions with Ukraine. Putin wants NATO to stop membership plans for all countries, including Ukraine. The former Soviet republics are unlikely to join the alliance in the future, but NATO countries will not rule it out.
Blinken and Stoltenberg spoke separately after an extraordinary virtual meeting of NATO foreign ministers. The North Atlantic Council meeting is the first in a series of high-level talks over the next week aimed at easing tensions.
“We are prepared to respond by force to further Russian aggression, but a diplomatic solution is still possible and preferable if Russia is willing,” Blinken told reporters in Washington. AP, Saturday (8/1/2022).
He emphatically rejected Russia’s claim that NATO had promised not to expand eastward after the entry of several satellite states of the former Soviet Union after the end of the Cold War.
“NATO has never promised not to accept new members; it can’t and won’t,” Blinken said, accusing Putin of making arguments to distract from Russia’s military movements along the Ukrainian border.
“They want to draw us into the debate about NATO rather than focus on the problem at hand, namely their aggression against Ukraine. We will not be distracted from the problem,” said Blinken.
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