NATO chief condemns Russia’s ‘brutal act of war’ against Ukraine
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6 min read . Updated: 24 Feb 2022, 07:19 PM IST Jens Stoltenberg says ‘It will be a new Europe’ after invasion that has given alliance a new unity of purpose
BRUSSELS : NATO Chief Condemns Russia’s ‘Brutal Act of War’ Against Ukraine
BY DREW HINSHAW | UPDATED FEB 24, 2022 07:46 AM EST
Jens Stoltenberg says ‘It will be a new Europe’ after invasion that has given alliance a new unity of purpose
NATO’s chief called Russia’s attack on Ukraine a “brutal act of war" and said he would convene a summit of alliance leaders Friday following an activation of alliance defense plans.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg described Russia’s assault as a “deliberate, cold-blooded and long-planned invasion" that represents a “blatant violation of international law."
He said leaders of NATO’s 30 member countries would gather virtually on Friday to discuss the way forward following Russia’s military assault. NATO partners Finland and Sweden will join the summit, as will European Union leaders, he said.
Mr. Stoltenberg said NATO on Thursday activated its defense plans, a previously established set of guidelines that give military commanders additional authority to deploy forces where needed, within specified limits, and enables the alliance to move forces more quickly.
Mr. Stoltenberg said the activation was designed to ensure that the conflict in Ukraine doesn’t spill into NATO countries. About one-third of NATO countries share a land border with Russia or its close ally Belarus, or face Russia across the Black Sea.
The NATO chief declined to say if the alliance had ever previously activated such defense plans.
Russia’s attack on Ukraine, which since 2008 has had an invitation to potentially join NATO, has breathed new life into the alliance. Created in the ashes of World War II to square off with Moscow, the U.S.-led military grouping has since the Cold War’s end in 1991 struggled for a clear mission.
Now members have rallied around a shared assessment that after a quarter-century of relative peace, Europe’s security can no longer be taken for granted.
“There will be a new reality," Mr. Stoltenberg said. “It will be a new Europe after the invasion we saw today."
In response to Moscow’s recently increasing aggression toward Ukraine, the U.S. and allies have already been beefing up their military presence in NATO countries near Russia. Mr. Stoltenberg said those efforts would now increase.
The support means that Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has justified his campaign against Ukraine partly as a response to NATO’s encroachment of Russia’s borders, faces an escalation of allied forces next to Belarus, which Russia is slowly subsuming, and Ukraine, which it now aims to dominate.
“It’s ironic that what Putin didn’t want to see is a stronger NATO on his flank," said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a visit to Poland last week. “And that’s exactly what he will see going forward."
Spanish and French warships are cycling through the Black Sea. A flow of new arms sales is under way, with Washington selling sophisticated Abrams tanks and F-35 jet fighters to Poland and giving allies in Eastern Europe the green light to sell U.S.-made Javelin antitank missiles to Ukraine.
Just months ago, the alliance was stung by a chaotic defeat in Afghanistan, having spent 20 years trying to rout the Taliban and build up the Afghan army. NATO was mulling a jumbled set of priorities, from combating Islamist terrorists to containing China’s rise, while a fringe of right-wing and Moscow-friendly leaders from Hungary or the Czech Republic pushed for the alliance to tackle illegal migration.
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For now, those voices have been drowned out, as NATO focuses squarely on the risk of conflict spilling over from the war on its doorstep. Talk of the alliance playing a greater role assisting America’s rivalry with Beijing has been put on hold—a point of frustration for Washington, where officials have lamented the time and attention spent shoring up the security of Europe, instead of enlisting the bloc’s help against China.
France, whose President Emmanuel Macron once pushed for a “true, European army" that could fight with or without U.S. help, has softened that rhetoric.
All the same, NATO’s renewed unity could prove short-lived, if the conflict ends quickly—or runs long enough to inflict painful disruptions to the Russian gas that Europe depends on. In Central Europe, suspicion runs deep that Western allies don’t have the stomach for a long struggle against Russia, especially if it hits consumers’ gas bills.
In a poll published this month, only 35% of Germans deemed defending Ukraine’s sovereignty worth the risk of an economic downturn; 38% considered it wasn’t worth the risk, according to the European Council on Foreign Relations, which conducted the survey. In France, just 31% of people felt it was worth the risk, with 41% opposed.
For years, successive U.S. administrations fretted that Washington’s biggest allies in Europe had grown complacent over 30 years since the Cold War’s end, reluctant to spend on their own defense and accustomed to life under the U.S. security umbrella. European allies doubted whether NATO had a clear and relevant purpose.
“What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO," Mr. Macron said in a 2019 interview.
European leaders had been frustrated with Washington after last year’s retreat from Afghanistan, which came nearly two decades after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that prompted the first and only use of NATO’s collective-defense clause. NATO’s 2011 air campaign that helped topple Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi set off a refugee crisis that energized nationalist leaders in Europe who have been persistent gadflies for NATO—from French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Washington and Berlin had been at odds over Germany’s reluctance to raise military spending, cut imports of Russian natural gas and join the U.S.’s hardening stance on China.
For the moment, the conflict in Ukraine buries those disagreements and offers a chance to find common cause.
Germany has halted Nord Stream 2, its gas pipeline with Russia—and military spending across the alliance is rising. The invasion of Ukraine is likely to accelerate that trend. Hawkish views on Russia, once concentrated in Europe’s east, have gained ground in Berlin and Paris.
The military confrontation “changes things in a pretty fundamental way," said Ivo Daalder, U.S. ambassador to NATO from 2009 to 2013. “I think it’s the wake-up call that war is not just something that happens far away but it’s something that happens in our neighborhood."
Mr. Daalder predicted that NATO members would rally behind efforts to cut European reliance on Russian gas. “I bet that Nord Stream 2 will never have Russian gas flowing through it," he said.
That said, the alliance, which does much of its work through decisions that require unanimity, still has marginal leaders who have tried to thwart NATO’s support for Ukraine, such as Croatian President Zoran Milanovic, who has demanded Croatia remain apart from any conflict with Russia.
NATO’s Mr. Stoltenberg is set to leave this year, with no clear candidate primed to succeed him. France’s Mr. Macron faces presidential elections this spring, potentially influencing his stance in the alliance. Next year, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who has made his country a more active member of the alliance, is set to leave office, creating uncertainty around Italy’s posture.
The longer the war drags on, with attendant sanctions and potential disruptions of trade and energy flows, the deeper that toll on Europe’s economy will be, said Kristi Raik, director of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute.
“As the situation grows worse, the question becomes more difficult for European societies, in terms of how far we are willing to go in supporting Ukraine, especially as it means more costs for ourselves," she said. “We don’t know how enduring this unity is. If things get really ugly and violent there will be costs for European societies for pushing back on Russia."
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