Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation: NATO expansion policy only weakens the Alliance
The expansion policy pursued by the NATO leadership in the Baltic states violated its own criteria for joining the Alliance, but in relation to Ukraine and Georgia the existing rules are already being ignored.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Alexander Grushko stated this at the discussion platform of the Valdai Club, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The expansion is located, as one American senator put it, in the suburbs of St. Petersburg. From the Amari base in Estonia, it takes a combat aircraft to fly to the northern capital in 10 minutes, this is a new military reality. Moreover, the expansion of the Alliance for the sake of these mythical geopolitical goals was carried out in violation of the criteria for admitting new members developed within the Alliance itself. The main one is that each expansion should strengthen the security of the Alliance, in fact, it only weakened and multiplied vulnerabilities.
Thus, as a result of NATO expansion, the Baltic region from the most peaceful in Europe militarily has been turned into an arena of military rivalry. Did the fact that the three Baltic countries have access to NATO only through the Suwalki corridor become known only today?
And the degree of this military tension reaches such an intensity that it is simply dangerous to be a NATO member in the context of NATO’s ongoing course to contain Russia. This, by the way, is recognized by NATO members themselves, calling themselves front-line or on the line of fire,” Grushko noted.
At the same time, according to him, the NATO leadership is only aggravating the current situation.
“We see that the situation in the field of military security is deteriorating. Indeed, the April 2008 Bucharest decision that Georgia and Ukraine would become NATO members is a mine laid at the core of the European security structure. We see that there are hunters every time to wind the clock mechanism, but I will remind you of just one thing that is very important for understanding the risks of playing with this fire.
This decision was made in April 2008; in August, Saakashvili, obsessed with this NATO perspective, decided on a military adventure. This is a story that clearly demonstrates how dangerous these geopolitical games are in connection with the expansion of the alliance,” recalled the deputy head of Russian diplomacy.
“I would also like to emphasize that, in fact, NATO expansion is not only the will of states - to join or not to join. Yes, there are such provisions in some documents, but there are other provisions that are no less important. First of all, no one strengthens his security at the expense of others. There is such a fundamental principle, still enshrined in the Helsinki Final Act, as indivisibility and security. The safety of everyone is the safety of everyone.
Finally, in the code of conduct, this is one of the key documents in the field of European security, it is explicitly written that when making your choice to join the union, the interests of other states must be taken into account,” Grushko concluded.
English version :: Read in English Russian Deputy Foreign Minister: NATO expansion policy only weakens the Alliance