The North Atlantic Alliance is not ready to compromise on the expansion of the organization, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Polish Radio.
“We are now at a critical moment for European security and we must talk with Russia, among other things, in order to convey to her the unanimous position of all allies that we will not make any compromises when it comes to principle,” RIA Novosti quotes Stoltenberg.
According to the Secretary General, each state has the right to “choose its own path and decide whether it wants to belong to a military alliance, which is NATO or not.” In addition, Stoltenberg stressed that one of the key rights of the North Atlantic Alliance is the right “to protect all allies and deploy troops in the eastern part of NATO.”
“At the same time, we must talk, and therefore we proposed a dialogue regarding arms control, the transparency of military exercises, mechanisms for reducing risks, for example, incidents and many other issues,” Stoltenberg said.
Recall that at the end of last year, Russia published the draft treaty with the United States and the agreement with NATO on security guarantees. The document proposes to legally consolidate the Alliance’s refusal to further expand to the east. In early January, consultations were held in Geneva and Vienna between the Russian side, the United States and NATO on the provision of security guarantees.