Putin wants to persuade NATO to withdraw armed forces from Eastern Europe. The alliance now decides contrary plans. The US, Germany and other allies announce a switch.
US President Joe Biden wants to exchange views on the Ukraine conflict with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and other allies this Friday.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, EU Council President Charles Michel, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, France’s Head of State Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are in attendance, the White House said.
The conversation is said to be about “common concerns about Russia’s continued military build-up” on the Ukrainian border. The aim is to continue to exchange views on the “coordination of diplomacy and deterrence”.
NATO plans to expand troop presence on eastern flank
Meanwhile, in view of the Russian troop build-up on the border with Ukraine, NATO initiated the expansion of its presence in the eastern alliance area.
The 30 member states accepted a corresponding proposal from the military in a written decision-making process this week, as several sources from the German Press Agency confirmed.
In particular, the plans are aimed at stationing multinational combat troops in NATO countries south-west of Ukraine, such as Romania, to deter Russia. So far, the so-called battlegroups have only existed in the Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, as well as in Poland.
The Allies’ decision is to be reconfirmed next Wednesday at a meeting of defense ministers. Then the official announcement will be made. The plans could be implemented as early as this spring.
Stoltenberg: Real danger of an armed conflict
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg once again described the situation in somber words during a visit to an air force base in Romania on Friday. “The danger of a new armed conflict in Europe is real,” he said, referring to the more than 100,000 Russian soldiers on the border with Ukraine.
Shortly before, US President Joe Biden had urged American citizens in Ukraine to leave the country. If there were to be a Russian invasion of Ukraine, an evacuation operation with the help of US troops would be unthinkable, Biden told NBC television in an interview on Thursday. “It’s a world war if Americans and Russians start shooting at each other.”
A Ukraine meeting in Berlin ended on Friday night without any tangible result. After more than nine hours of negotiations, the Franco-German mediators drew a sober conclusion. In “difficult talks” between the envoys of Russia and Ukraine, “the different positions and various solution options were clearly worked out”. The Russian side then accused the mediators of not putting enough pressure on the Ukrainian government. The government in Kiev is doing everything possible not to fulfill its obligations in the peace plan for eastern Ukraine, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
It is now eagerly awaited how Russia will react to the NATO decision. Critics fear that sending additional alliance troops to the east could further intensify the current conflict. This is supported by the fact that the government in Moscow only submitted proposals for new security agreements to NATO in December, which aim, among other things, for NATO to drastically reduce its activities in Eastern Europe.
Hungary does not want NATO troops
On the other hand, Moscow can count it as a success that multinational units will probably not be stationed in all relevant NATO countries. Hungary, which borders directly on Ukraine, publicly announced on Wednesday that it did not consider it necessary to transfer NATO troops to its territory. Shortly before, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban had been a guest of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In contrast to most other NATO heads of state and government, the right-wing politician maintains a friendly relationship with Russia and Putin.
In addition to Romania, Slovakia and Bulgaria are also to provide locations for multinational NATO units. France and the USA are considered to be two safe sources of troops for the new initiative. French President Emmanuel Macron had already announced in January that his country would take responsibility and lead a battle group in Romania in the event of a NATO decision to this effect. The USA are already in the process of relocating around 1,000 soldiers from Germany to Romania.
Stoltenberg said on Friday that numerous Allies had recently signaled their willingness to take part in a battle group in Romania or elsewhere. He expects final decisions in the spring.
In addition to expanding its presence in the eastern alliance area, NATO also wants to review and, if necessary, adjust its positioning in other parts of Europe in view of the tensions with Russia. According to information from the German Press Agency, a proposal by the military to that effect was also accepted.
In NATO circles, it is emphasized that the expansion of the troop presence on the eastern flank is only taking place as a reaction to Russia’s behavior. Proof of this is the fact that no multinational troops were stationed in Eastern Europe until Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine.
Baltic states demand information about military maneuvers
The current decisions are now a reaction to the fact that Russia has been massing an unusually large number of troops on the border with Ukraine for weeks. In the West, there are fears that the Kremlin is considering an invasion of its neighboring country and that the conflict could even spread to include NATO countries. However, it is also considered possible that fears are only being stirred up in order to persuade the NATO states to make concessions on the demands for new security guarantees. Russia denies attack plans.
Meanwhile, the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are demanding more information from Belarus about its large-scale military maneuvers with Russia amid high tensions in the Ukraine conflict. According to the Latvian Defense Ministry in Riga on Friday, the three EU and NATO countries have made a formal request to the authoritarian leadership in Minsk via the OSCE. All three Baltic states border on Russia. Latvia and Lithuania also border Russia’s ally Belarus.