NATO head Jens Stoltenberg – repositioning for potential dialogue between Russia and the US.
21st Century Wire says…
It’s too early to celebrate any real change in policy, but this week’s latest statement by NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg might be signalling a slight change of tact by NATO, no doubt influenced by the arrival of a new US Administration that appears determined to alter the previous Obama trajectory of antagonisation, provocateuring and permanent war-footing with Russia.
Ever since the Crimea electorate voted in favour of reunification with Russia in the spring 2014 referendum, NATO led by the US and backed-up by the western corporate media collective, has been on near war footing with the Russian Federation – and engaged in a relentless public relations war designed to demonise and discredit Russia and its President Vladimir Putin. Nearly every day, US and UK politicians, journalists and media pundits will publicly state that “Russia invaded the Ukraine” despite the fact they did no such thing. The situation between East and West has deteriorated to such a degree that crazed US politicians and their media cohorts has even gone so far as to blame Putin for Hillary Clinton’s historic loss in the 2016 Presidential Election.
Despite President Trump’s positive overtures towards Russia, the fact remains that the unprecedented NATO military build-up which took place under Barack Obama (the largest movement of US and NATO assets since the beginning of the Cold War) cannot be undone without a major multilateral shift in policy and corresponding assets on the ground. Simply put, this renewed NATO front has become the new cash cow of the western Military Industrial Complex. In addition, NATO’s continuously expansion Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) systems pointing at Russia – shows no signs of reversing.
All this comes amid a backdrop of military escalation in Europe, with NATO expanding its BMD systems across all NATO states – including those pressed up against Russia’s western and southwestern borders. For the last decade, NATO has been pushing and recycling its public relations talking point that its BMD system is designed to protect Europe from missile attacks from Iran, even though Iran has neither the capability to attack Western Europe, nor does it have any track record of invading or attacking its neighbors.
Objectively, NATO’s BMD expansion is an overt attempt to undermine Russia’s own nuclear deterrence, but in practical terms the ramifications are much starker – it places Moscow and St. Petersburg in range of NATO’s short range missiles – a reality which throws off the balance of power between these two traditional opposing geopolitical forces.
Watch this video recently released by NATO which shows the scope of the alliance’s defensive-offensive ‘attack umbrella’ against Russia:
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RT
Like the new US administration, NATO is willing to talk with Moscow, but only from a position of “strength,” alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg said, while confirming that the alliance is continuing to develop its anti-missile shield on Russia’s borders.
In an attempt to address fears in Europe that Washington is no longer fully committed to NATO’s future, Stoltenberg told reporters after talks with Bulgarian President Rumen Radev in Brussels, that the new Trump administration will support the alliance’s role in maintaining transatlantic security.
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Stoltenberg said that in recent phone conversations with Donald Trump and US Defense Secretary James Mattis, “they all conveyed the same message that the United States remains committed to NATO and the transatlantic bond.”
“That it’s not only something that they say, but we also see now that the United States is actually increasing its presence in Europe,” the NATO chief said, referring to the recent deployment of US troops and military hardware in Eastern Europe.
US troops and heavy weapons began arriving in Europe via Germany in early January as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, a mission designed to curtail a perceived “Russian threat.” Eighty-seven US battle tanks, 144 Bradley fighting vehicles, and 3,500 soldiers arrived near Russia’s borders as part of a NATO buildup that was agreed upon at the alliance’s summit in Warsaw last July.
Poor little NATO vs big bad Russia: a disinformation primer (Op-Edge) https://t.co/tiCsGhFCK9 pic.twitter.com/huUKDJaZ0v
— RT (@RT_com) July 8, 2016
While the Kremlin has slammed the buildup as a threat to Russia’s national security on numerous occasions, NATO has not relented in implementing its hostile policy towards Moscow since Crimea resoundingly voted to rejoin Russia in a referendum in the wake of Ukrainian crisis. NATO unanimously decided to suspend practical co-operation with the Russian Federation in April of 2014.
While Trump and his team have signaled that they may seek a possible thaw in relations with Moscow, Stoltenberg stressed that any dialogue with Russia should be approached from a position of strength…
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