NATO Sec-Gen speaks on close cooperation in Black Sea region on the eve of the alliance’s 70th anniversary
Stoltenberg stated he expects the ministers will also step up NATO’s support for Georgia and Ukraine. Photo: www.nato.int.
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NATO Foreign Ministers will meet to mark the seventieth anniversary of the Alliance and focus on Black Sea security issues on Wednesday evening, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at a press conference today.
The ministers will mark ‘seven decades of peace and prosperity’ in the historic neoclassical Mellon Auditorium in Washington, where the original twelve members signed the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949.
Jens Stoltenberg also announced that NATO – Russia relations will be discussed on Thursday.
The alliance founding treaty that was signed on April 4, 1949. Photo:www.nato.int.
He said that Russia continues to violate the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) by developing and deploying SSC-8 missiles, as the latter cannot be easily detected and ‘lower the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, and make us all less safe.’
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also stated that NATO is concerned by Russia’s pattern of aggressive behavior including its ongoing actions against Ukraine and the seizure of Ukrainian sailors and ships near the Azov Sea.
Jens Stoltenberg hopes NATO foreign minister to agree on new measures to improve situational awareness in the Black Sea region. Photo:EurActiv.com
NATO has already stepped up its presence in the Black Sea. And we continue to work closely with our partners in the region. Just last week, I saw for myself this cooperation at the 2019 NATO-Georgia exercise and today, ships from one of NATO’s naval groups are in Ukraine and Georgia,” Stoltenberg remarked.
He said the ships will be involved in the exercise Sea Shield in the Black Sea,adding he expects the ministers will agree on new measures to improve NATO’s situational awareness in the region.
Stoltenberg stated he expects the ministers will also step up NATO’s support for Georgia and Ukraine.
See the full press conference transcript here.
“We have stepped up support for our close partners, Georgia and Ukraine, sovereign nations with the sovereign right to choose their own path”, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated during the joint meeting of the United States Congress in Washington on Wednesday.
US Senator Adam Kinzinger has requested advice from Executive Vice President of the Atlantic Council Damon Wilson for the US administrative on how they can oppose Russian aggression worldwide.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg hopes Georgia can soon be welcomed into NATO, and praises the progress achieved by the country. He also urges Russia to withdraw its forces from Georgian territories.
Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani has stated that it is time NATO offer a more comprehensive strategy to the Black Sea region, as a “secure Europe is unimaginable without a secured Black Sea. Zalkaliani said that accepting countries from the Black Sea region into the alliance will benefit NATO.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has stated that he will visit Georgia, which is a “unique partner of NATO”, in March 2019, during the NATO-Georgia joint military drills, in which 17 NATO member states will participate.
Salome Zurabishvili, the new president of Georgia, is planning to forge closer ties with NATO and the European Union for boosting both trade and security of the Black Sea region, Financial Times reports.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday that “we see Russia, which has been responsible for aggressive actions against neighbours: Georgia, Ukraine, but also have forces in Moldova without the consent of the government in that country”.