“The iron curtain is descending, the process is underway.” These are the words of the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrovon the top of the NATO held in Madrid. The minister accused this Thursday the alliance Atlantic of violating the 1997 Act governing their relations with Russiawhich expressly prohibits the permanent deployment of weapons in the territory of the new NATO members.
“The day before at the summit (in Madrid) there were long and notorious discussions about whether said Act is needed or better to renounce it. Finally, they decided not to touch it. But the decisions that were adopted they grossly violate the Founding Act” NATO-Russia, Lavrov said at a press conference during his trip to Belarus.
Lavrov stressed that Moscow it will analyze the situation and “will decide depending on to what extent and how the decisions adopted and announced by the Atlantic Alliance are translated into reality”.
The new Concept Strategic approved in Madrid by the Euro-Atlantic bloc sees Russia as its “main threat” and China as a “challenge”.
In addition, the allies also decided to reinforce the eastern flank and transform their Response Force, which will go from having 40,000 to more than 300,000 soldiers for immediate intervention.
The battalions deployed in eight Eastern European countries will also be reinforced, with the idea that some of them may reach the size of a brigade.
[La OTAN señala a Rusia como “una amenaza” y se refiere por primera vez a China como “un desafío”]
“The Founding Act continues to exist. We have not initiated the breaking of this agreement,” insisted Lavrov.
Precisely, last December Russia already reminded NATO that in said agreement both parties undertook to not deploy more troops and weapons in countries of the European continent than those they had deployed before signing the Act.
“The signatories confirm that they do not see each other as enemies,” says the text, which was to prevent any expansion to the east of the continent.
Since 1997, the Alliance has accepted in its midst Poland, Republic czech Y Hungary (1999) already Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the three baltic (2004).
In addition, Lavrov stressed that Moscow and Minsk are “deeply concerned” by NATO’s military activities near its borders, “especially in the Baltics and Poland”.
“We have the same opinion: such actions have a character antagonist and will lead to further escalation of tension and fragmentation of the European area of security and cooperation,” he said.
He accused the West of “burying” the principles by which the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was created, specifically what refers to the indivisibility of security on the continent.
Russia maintains that the refusal of the US and NATO to grant it security guarantees left it no alternative but to start the campaign military in Ukraine on February 24.
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