NATO chief urges allies to boost defense spending, build ties with Russia
Oct. 28, 2014 - 09:48AM |
By Julian Hale
Staff writer
FILED UNDER
News
World News
BRUSSELS — NATO countries must boost defense spending and build a constructive relationship with Russia, the alliance’s new leader said on Tuesday.
“There is no contradiction between being pro-collective defense and a strong NATO and pro-engagement with Russia,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at a debate organized by the German Marshall Fund think tank. “We need a strong defense to be engaged with Russia. NATO and Russia are here to stay. We’ll have a relationship with Russia.
“The question is not whether, but what kind of relationship,” he said. “A strong alliance and increasing defense spending in real terms create the fundamentals for relating to Russia in a cooperative way.
“In the past, we [NATO and Russia] looked at each other with suspicion, relied on deterrence, and talked to avoid misunderstandings and escalation. We can see echoes of that now,” he warned. “The alternative is a relationship based on the rule of law and not the law of the strongest, on common interests and not illusions.”
Stoltenberg then put the ball firmly in Russia’s court, saying: “To get there, Russia would need to want it and make clear steps to make it possible.”
On defense spending, he referred to the NATO summit in Wales, when allies committed to stop reductions in defense budgets and to gradually increase them over the next decade as their economies grow.
“The first and most immediate target is to stop reductions in defense spending,” he said. The longer term one is to increase defense spending. Stoltenberg does not plan to set interim targets toward reaching the longer term goal.
On at least two occasions, he said he would engage with leaders to help ensure they keep to the pledges made in Wales.
“After the Cold War, there were arguments to reduce spending,” he said, but “now we’re moving into an uncertain environment where there are more threats and more instability (such as failing states in the south, missile proliferation, energy disruption and cyber attacks), and so there are arguments for increasing defense spending.”
He named Poland and Romania as examples of countries that are giving more priority to defense spending and indicated he would use those examples to convince other leaders of the merits of increasing defense spending.
Stoltenberg also said:
■ NATO defense ministers must agree on the size of a “spearhead force” as part of NATO’s readiness action plan to reassure countries in the eastern and southern neighborhood at a meeting in February.
■ Russia should end “destabilizing operations in Ukraine and pull back its forces.”
■ NATO stands ready to help Iraq make its institutions and forces more effective.
■ Missions to train, assist and advise local forces, especially in countries such as Iraq, should apply to other crises. Those types of training will help those countries manage their problems without requiring troops from abroad. ■
Email:
[email protected].[/QUOTE]
[URL="http://www.armytimes.com/article/20141028/NEWS08/310280042/NATO-chief-urges-allies-boost-defense-spending-build-ties-Russia"]http://www.armytimes.com/article/20141028/NEWS08/310280042/NATO-chief-urges-allies-boost-defense-spending-build-ties-Russia[/URL]
