NATO will discuss Russia’s security proposals, but will not let Moscow dictate the Alliance’s military stance, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said today during a visit to German troops stationed in Lithuania for the Russian-led invasion of Lithuania.
On Friday, Moscow presented a list of demands to the West, including the withdrawal of NATO forces from Poland, Estonia and Latvia and Lithuania, which once belonged to the Soviet Union.
Russia is also seeking a legally binding guarantee that NATO will abandon all military activity in Eastern Europe and Ukraine and (call for) an effective Russian veto on Ukraine’s future NATO membership, which the West has already ruled out.
“We need to resolve the current tensions diplomatically but at the same time with a credible deterrent,” Lambrecht told reporters in Roukla during her first visit to German troops stationed abroad.
The combat units, deployed three years after the annexation of Crimea by Moscow in 2014, are there to stop any attack, saving time until additional NATO forces reach the front.
“We will discuss the Russian proposals … But Russia can not dictate its position to NATO partners and that is something we will make very clear in the talks (next week at the NATO Council),” he added.
The West has threatened to impose harsh economic sanctions on Russia if Moscow escalates its military development on the border with Ukraine.
Moscow says it is simply responding to threats to its security from Kiev’s growing close ties with the Alliance.
In a joint press conference with the German defense minister, Lithuanian counterpart Arvinda Anusauskas accused Russia of trying to divide the Alliance and said NATO should not allow Moscow to divide Europe into spheres of influence.
“We must support Ukraine by all means, including the delivery of lethal weapons,” he said, without elaborating on which weapons he was referring to.
Lambrecht, for its part, declined to comment on a Spiegel report yesterday that NATO senior general Todd Walters had hinted that the Alliance should have a similar military presence in Bulgaria and Romania as in Poland and Poland. .
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