NATO on Thursday voiced concern over Russia\u2019s recent military deployment in Belarus, urging Moscow to take steps to de-escalate tensions.<\/p>\n
\u201cNATO continues to call on Russia to de-escalate. Any further Russian aggression would have severe consequences and carry a heavy price,\u201d NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said during a joint news conference with North Macedonia\u2019s Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski in Brussels.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe remain ready to engage in meaningful dialogue and have conveyed a written proposal to Russia,\u201d Stoltenberg said.<\/p>\n
NATO is also ready to discuss \u201chow to reduce risks,\u201d he further stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut NATO will not compromise on core principles, the right of every nation to choose his path and NATO\u2019s ability to protect and defend all allies,\u201d Stoltenberg added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are committed to finding a political solution to the crisis,\u201d he said, but cautioned: \u201cWe have to be prepared for the worst.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stoltenberg also said he discussed with Kovacevski Russia\u2019s continued military buildup in and around Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the last days, we have seen a significant movement of Russian military forces into Belarus. This is the biggest Russian deployment there since the Cold War,\u201d the NATO chief said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA wide range of modern military capabilities\u201d was deployed to Belarus, he continued. \u201cAll this will be combined with Russia\u2019s annual nuclear forces exercise expected to take place this month.\u201d<\/p>\n
The military deployment included an expected 30,000 combat troops, Spetsnaz special operation forces, fighter jets including SU-35, Iskander dual-capable missiles, and S-400 air defense systems, Stoltenberg detailed.<\/p>\n
On the US announcement of additional troop deployment to Eastern Europe, he said: \u201cThis is a powerful signal of US commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Pentagon announced Wednesday that 1,000 US troops will be moved from Germany to Romania, while another 2,000 soldiers will be sent from the US state of North Carolina to Germany and Poland.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have already increased readiness of the NATO Response Force and we are considering the deployment of additional NATO battleships to the southeastern part of the Alliance,\u201d Stoltenberg added.<\/p>\n
For his part, Kovacevski said that the recent tension is \u201ca threat to European and international security\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a NATO ally, we join calls to Russia to de-escalate and pursue diplomatic dialogue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The US, with its European allies, has accused Russia of setting the stage for an invasion of Ukraine after concentrating more than 120,000 troops, significant artillery, and tanks on the border.<\/p>\n
Moscow has denied it is preparing to invade and said its troops are there for exercises.<\/p>\n
A similar buildup has taken place in Belarus.<\/p>\n
The US said Monday that Russia is seeking to increase its troop presence in Belarus six-fold by early February to 30,000 armed forces.<\/p>\n
Addressing the UN Security Council session on simmering Ukraine tensions, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Washington\u2019s UN envoy, said Russia has already deployed 5,000 troops to Belarus alongside short-range ballistic missiles, special forces, and anti-aircraft batteries, and has stationed well over 100,000 troops inside its border near Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Source: Anadolu Agency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NATO on Thursday voiced concern over Russia\u2019s recent military deployment in Belarus, urging Moscow to take steps to de-escalate tensions. \u201cNATO continues to call on Russia to de-escalate. Any further Russian aggression would have severe consequences and carry a heavy price,\u201d NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said during a joint news conference with North Macedonia\u2019s Prime […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,78],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-410591","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410591"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":410593,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410591\/revisions\/410593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}