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☆ Front-line NATO allies worry they could be next after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and are getting ready for a fight
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Sinéad Baker | Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

These countries along the military alliance's front line are now scrambling to make sure they're protected should the Russian military ever come knocking. "There is an imminent need of a stronger NATO presence in our region," Estonia's Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said. For nearly 14 months, the Russian military has been bogged down by its grinding war in Ukraine. More boots on the groundSome leaders in the Baltic countries have said that they ultimately want to host more NATO troops, including permanent brigades, in the years to come. So as the threat landscape continues to shift, the Baltic defense has adapted along with it, Townsend said.

The Black Sea and its Ukrainian coast have been crucial theatres of war since Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year. "The Black Sea is instrumental for making the whole of Europe peaceful and future-oriented," Kuleba, speaking via video link, told a Black Sea security conference in the Romanian capital Bucharest. It's time to turn the Black Sea into what the Baltic Sea has become, a sea of NATO." The remarks were brushed aside in Moscow, where Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a briefing: "The Black Sea can never be a NATO sea." Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu said a strong NATO foothold in the Black Sea going forward was a "must."

☆ Macron: France's 'tone deaf' president faces backlash over Taiwan comments
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Luke Mcgee | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

In it, he said that Europe must not become “just America’s followers” when asked about the prospect of China invading Taiwan. One said that Macron is “simply tone deaf to everything happening in the world. They were surprised to see Macron’s comments so soon after that meeting. For all that Macron’s comments could be put down to a president under pressure at home doing things on the world stage to create a distraction, his comments on Taiwan have done real damage to the fragile transatlantic relationship. It might not have been his intention, but Macron’s comments have come at a yet unknown cost.

☆ An emboldened NATO provides a bittersweet moment for war-torn Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Congratulating Finland, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Finland now has a "reliable guarantee of safety – a collective guarantee." At the heart of NATO is the tenet that an attack on one member is an attack on all members. Finland and Sweden both applied to join NATO last May, prompted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and their membership bids were fast-tracked. To do so would have triggered NATO members' commitment to protect one another and Moscow would have faced the collective might of the alliance's armed forces. That's not to say that NATO didn't see the war coming in Ukraine in the run up to the invasion.

☆ Russia's Belarus nuclear threat shows "empty promises" of China statement: Stoltenberg
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BRUSSELS, April 5 (Reuters) - Russia's announcement that it will station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus shows that a Russia-China joint statement days earlier amounted to "empty promises", NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement came just days after Russia and China jointly declared countries should not deploy nuclear weapons outside their borders, Stoltenberg told a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels. He said this showed such statements are "empty promises and what we need to watch closely is what Russia is doing." Stoltenberg said NATO had not seen any signs so far that Russia was following through on Putin's announcement. Also at his news conference, Stoltenberg reiterated his call for the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested last Thursday in Russia.

☆ Finland Joins NATO in Historic Move, Sparking Russian Outcry
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Sune Engel Rasmussen | Daniel Michaels | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

BRUSSELS—Finland officially joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Tuesday, a historic security-policy shift that was prompted by Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and which has spurred a furious response from the Kremlin. With officials preparing to hoist Finland’s blue-and-white flag at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told a military conference in Moscow that the West was escalating its confrontation with Russia. He reminded participants that Belarus would soon have the ability to strike enemy targets with tactical nuclear weapons after Mr. Putin said last week that Moscow planned to base the Iskander-M missile system there.

HELSINKI/BRUSSELS, April 4 (Reuters) - Finland will become a member of NATO on Tuesday, completing a historic security policy shift triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, while neighbour Sweden is kept in the waiting room. "It will be a good day for Finland's security, for Nordic security and for NATO as a whole," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Monday. Sweden underwent a similar transformation in defence thinking and Stockholm and Helsinki applied together last year to join NATO. Moscow said on Monday it would strengthen its military capacity in its western and northwestern regions in response to Finland joining NATO. Stoltenberg said he was "absolutely confident" that Sweden will become a NATO member.

☆ Ukraine war live updates: Finland set to formally join NATO; Russian blogger bombing suspect has been 'framed,' husband says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Finnish reservists of the Guard Jaeger Regiment take part in a military exercise at the Santahamina military base in Helsinki, Finland on March 7, 2023. -Finland is set to formally become a member of the NATO defense alliance on Tuesday, ending years of "military non-alignment." On Tuesday, the country's President Sauli Niinisto will travel to the NATO headquarters in Brussels for the accession. Turkey, the last holdout on Helsinki's accession to the military coalition, gave its approval on Finland's membership bid on March 30. Sweden's membership bid, made at the same time as Finland's, is still awaiting approval.

☆ The NATO military alliance has its own song, as well as a jingle specially recorded over 60 years ago
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

It has its own official "NATO Hymn," as well as a decades-old jingle called "The NATO Song." Among the more interesting tributes, however, was "The NATO Song." And "The NATO Song" is far from the only musical celebration of the alliance's existence. A separate NATO informational page refers to a piece called the "NATO hymn song sheet" and links to the lyrics and notes to something titled "NATO — Song." Like Helsinki, Stockholm would provide the military alliance with a meaningful firepower boost as it faces threats from Russia.

☆ Finland will join NATO on Tuesday - Stoltenberg
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

[1/2] NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg attends a news conference before a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, Belgium April 3, 2023. REUTERS/Johanna GeronBRUSSELS, April 3 (Reuters) - Finland will join NATO on Tuesday, a step that will make Finland safer and the alliance stronger, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday. "We will raise the Finnish flag for the first time here at NATO headquarters. It will be a good day for Finland's security, for Nordic security and for NATO as a whole," he told reporters in Brussels. Reporting by Sudip Kar Gupta, Sabine Siebold and Andrew Gray; Editing by Alison WilliamsOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

"Tomorrow we will welcome Finland as the 31st member of NATO making Finland safer and our alliance stronger," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels, hailing the move as "historic". Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February last year pushed Finland and its neighbour Sweden to apply for NATO membership, abandoning decades of military non-alignment. [1/2] NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg attends a news conference before a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, Belgium April 3, 2023. REUTERS/Johanna Geron 1 2"President Putin went to war against Ukraine with the clear aim to get less NATO," Stoltenberg said. Stoltenberg pledged to work hard to get Sweden into NATO as soon as possible.

☆ Sweden, Finland and Turkey hold NATO talks, agree to more meetings
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

STOCKHOLM/ISTANBUL, March 9 (Reuters) - Turkey has acknowledged that Sweden and Finland have taken concrete steps to meet Ankara's concerns over their bids to join NATO and the three will hold further meetings, Sweden's chief negotiator in the accession process said on Thursday. Sweden and Finland applied last year to join NATO, but faced unexpected objections from Turkey which says the two countries harbour members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), considered a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies. "We see that Turkey recognized that both Sweden and Finland have taken concrete steps in this agreement, which is a good sign," chief negotiator Oscar Stenstrom told a news conference at NATO headquarters after trilateral talks resumed. President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said steps taken by Sweden and Finland to address Ankara's security concerns were positive, but not enough for Turkey's ratification of their NATO bid. In January, Turkey suspended talks set up as part of a trilateral deal agreed in Madrid last year aimed at smoothing Finland and Sweden's accession process.

[1/2] NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg attends a news conference on the day of NATO defence ministers' meeting at the Alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium February 15, 2023. REUTERS/Johanna GeronBRUSSELS, Feb 23 (Reuters) - NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday he saw progress in stalled talks with Turkey on Sweden's membership bid and aimed to have both Sweden and Finland join the alliance by the time of its July summit. Ankara accuses Stockholm of harbouring what Turkey considers members of terrorist groups, and has demanded their extradition as a step towards giving Sweden's NATO membership its green light. "So it's inconceivable that Finland or Sweden will face any military threats from Russia without NATO reacting." He has repeatedly cited the post-Soviet enlargement of the NATO alliance eastwards toward his borders as a reason for what he called Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine.

☆ NATO's Stoltenberg: World more dangerous with Russia suspending START treaty
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BRUSSELS, Feb 21 (Reuters) - NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday Russia's decision to suspend participation in the latest START bilateral nuclear arms control treaty made the world a more dangerous place, and he urged Moscow to reconsider. "More nuclear weapons and less arms control makes the world more dangerous," Stoltenberg, standing alongside Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, told reporters. "It is President Putin who started this imperial war of conquest ... As Putin made clear today, he's preparing for more war ... Putin must not win ... It would be dangerous for our own security and the whole world," Stoltenberg added. "I regret the decision by Russia to suspend its participation in (the) New START programme".

☆ Ukraine, U.S. defence heads talk "priorities" for allies' meeting
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 12 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov discussed "priorities", including air defence and artillery, for upcoming meetings of Kyiv's allies in Brussels, both sides said late on Saturday. The Ukraine Defense Contact Group will meet on Tuesday at the NATO headquarters, following upon a Jan. 20 conference at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany that was key for the decisions to send tanks. Austin and Reznikov discussed the importance of delivering promised capabilities as quickly as possible, the Pentagon's chief spokesperson, Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, said in a statement. After the call, Reznikov tweeted that "the United States is unwavering in its support of Ukraine," adding that the two also discussed the situation on the front line. Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by William MallardOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Russia's war in Ukraine backfired by uniting NATO, even as cracks emerged over nearly a year of fighting
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Jake Epstein | John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

When Putin invaded Ukraine, he miscalculated the response from Western countries. NATO has been largely united in its response to Russia's war, consistently providing Kyiv with military aid. Russian President Vladimir Putin has effectively succeeded in remaking the Western bloc, Araud said, adding that "the Western alliance is back." After the Soviet Union collapsed, both Finland and Sweden became NATO partner countries but stopped short of pursuing full membership. Even under the intense pressure of war, the alliance is "holding the way that they have in the past," he said.

☆ No concrete evidence on who fired missile, Poland's Duda says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Two people were killed in the explosion in Przewodow, about 6 km (3.5 miles) from the border with Ukraine, firefighters said. "We do not have any conclusive evidence at the moment as to who launched this missile ... it was most likely a Russian-made missile, but this is all still under investigation at the moment," Andrzej Duda told reporters. Duda said that it was very likely that Poland would request consultations under Article 4 of the NATO military alliance following the blast. Duda spoke after Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that Poland would increase surveillance of its airspace following the incident. Reporting by Alan Charlish, Justyna Pawlak, Anna Koper; Editing by Stephen CoatesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ NATO says Russia remains responsible for the fatal missile strike in Poland likely caused by Ukrainian air defense
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A missile killed two people when it hit NATO member Poland on Tuesday. NATO said it was likely a Ukrainian air-defense missile, but still faulted Russia. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday that the missile, which killed two people in Poland near its border with Ukraine on Tuesday, was probably a Ukrainian air-defense missile which missed its mark. "Our preliminary analysis suggests that the incident was likely caused by a Ukrainian air defence missile fired to defend Ukrainian territory against Russian cruise missile attacks," Stoltenberg said. "The possibility that the missile falling on Poland was not a Russian missile but a Ukrainian one changes very little," Reuters reported her as saying.

☆ NATO could invoke Article 4 after Russian missiles struck Poland. Here's what that means.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The incident could invoke NATO Article 4, which allows any member to call for a consultation when threatened. Several NATO countries previously invoked Article 4 after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Such defiant language ostensibly appeals to the collective defense principle at the heart of NATO Article 5. As such, NATO and its members have no binding obligation to defend Ukraine against Russia's attacks. Biden has made clear that US troops thus far deployed to Eastern Europe are there to bolster NATO member countries wary of nearby Russian aggression.

☆ Why isn't Ukraine already in NATO? Here's what it takes to join the 30-country alliance
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Ukraine's pursuit of NATO membership has been cited as a key factor in Russia's invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has long been vocal about his country's desire to secure both NATO membership and additional assistance. "So there were some formal reasons why the Alliance could say that Ukraine was not ready yet to join the Alliance." Will Finland and Sweden join NATO? Both countries submitted official letters of application to join NATO in May 2022 and were formally invited to join the alliance in June.

BRUSSELS, Oct 13 (Reuters) - The United States reaffirmed its commitment to defend "every inch" of NATO territory ahead of talks among defense ministers from the alliance on Thursday that will include closed-door discussions by its nuclear planning group. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterAustin spoke shortly before attending a meeting by NATO's Nuclear Planning Group, which is NATO's senior body on nuclear matters and handles policy issues associated with its nuclear forces. NATO's website says its nuclear policy is under "constant review, and is modified and adapted in light of new developments." "We're going to stay with our efforts to support Ukraine for as long as it takes," Austin said alongside NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. NATO told Moscow on Tuesday it would meet attacks on allies' critical infrastructure with a "united and determined response."

☆ Russia's attacks only deepen Ukraine, allied resolve, U.S. defense secretary says
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BRUSSELS, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Russia's missile strikes on Ukraine have laid bare the "malice and cruelty" of its war and further united the international community to support Ukraine's military efforts to defend itself, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday. Austin, speaking at the start of a Ukraine-focused meeting at NATO headquarters, praised Ukraine's military gains since September, calling them "extraordinary" and saying they had changed the dynamics of the war. "These victories belong to Ukraine's brave soldiers. But the Contact Group's security assistance, training, and sustainment efforts have been vital," Austin said, addressing the gathering of defense leaders, including from Ukraine. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Phil Stewart and Sabine Siebold; Editing by Andrew HeavensOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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