Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the relationship between NATO and Russia is at the “lowest point since the end of the Cold War.”
Speaking to Tom Newton Dunn Mr Stoltenberg has said:
“we see a pattern of Russian behaviour. We see the willingness to use military force against neighbours; Ukraine, Georgia. But we also see cyber attacks. We see attempts to meddle in our political democratic processes, to undermine the trust in our institutions and efforts to divide us. We have to take that very seriously.”
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Speaking to Tom Newton Dunn for T&G on Sunday (from 10am) Mr Stoltenberg said:
The relationship between NATO and Russia is at a low point, the lowest point since the end of the Cold War. And we see a pattern of Russian behaviour. We see the willingness to use military force against neighbours; Ukraine, Georgia. But we also see cyber attacks. We see attempts to meddle in our political democratic processes, to undermine the trust in our institutions and efforts to divide us. We have to take that very seriously.
We need to strengthen our cyber defences, we need to exchange intelligence, we need to be vigilant and aware of all these different tools of aggressive actions, military and non military, cyber and other ways of conducting aggressive actions against NATO allies. At the same time, I welcome the fact that despite all these efforts what we see is strong support for NATO and the fact that allies have invested more in defence.
Mr Stoltenberg has also suggested Russia had a hand in the forced landing of a Ryanair flight by the Lukashenko regime in Belarus:
What we know is that Belarus and Russia are working very closely together in almost all domains, including when it comes to air defence. And second, what we have seen is that Russia is one of the few countries that have not condemned the totally unacceptable forced landing of a civilian aeroplane, going from one NATO capital, Athens to another NATO capital, Vilnius.
Hes spoken of his relief that Joe Biden has replaced Donald Trump as US President:
Its very good to have a President of the United States who is so committed to the bond between Europe and North America and NATO and really wants to reinvigorate that Alliance, and is ready to invest in NATO. And Im absolutely certain that when NATO leaders meet on Monday, they will agree to step up and strengthen our alliance.
Of course, its great to have a President who knows NATO as well as President Biden. And its such a personal, powerful commitment to our lines. Then I also think that its important to remember that yes, we had some difficulties, there were some differences. And we had some challenging discussions over the last four years with the previous administration…if anything I think it has proven that NATO is strong. NATO can weather different political storms
And on defence spending, the Secretary General said its vital for spending commitments, agreed in Wales in 2014, to continue despite the Coronavirus pandemic:
The threats and the challenges that made us make the decision in Wales, at the NATO summit in 2014, have not gone away. They are still there. And therefore what we see is that NATO allies continue to increase their investments in defence.
What youre also seeing, during the pandemic, is that our military forces actually provide important support to the civilian efforts combating the pandemic or fighting the pandemic by setting up military field hospitals, by transporting critical equipment, protective equipment and also now by supporting the rollout of the vaccines. So this differs a bit from ally to ally, country to country but NATO and our militaries are coordinating and stepping up in the support of the civilian efforts.
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