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Abe Abraham
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Junge Welt : NATO advances further(FOREIGN MINISTERS MEETING)

Post by Abe Abraham » 30 Nov 2022, 19:50

  • FOREIGN MINISTERS MEETING
    NATO advances further

    War pact wants to expand activities in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus. Focus on opposition to China.



    The two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Bucharest ended on Wednesday with the announcement of new measures against Russia and a reaffirmation of the solidarity against China. Among other things, the ministers decided to expand NATO activities in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus. In particular, military cooperation with the Republic of Moldova, Georgia and Bosnia-Herzegovina is to be strengthened.

    The three states attended the meeting, Moldova for the first time. With a view not least to Bosnia, whose Serbian population is close to Moscow and therefore largely rejects cooperation with NATO, Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani demanded on Wednesday: "We must stop the Russians in the western Balkans".

    The Foreign Ministers also dealt in detail with the escalating conflict between the West and China. The efforts of the United States in particular to advance the economic decoupling of the People's Republic were clearly recognizable.

    NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said after the Bucharest meeting that efforts were being made to reduce “dependencies” on China and “vulnerabilities”. What was meant was the attempt to open up new sources of raw materials and to move supply chains away from China.

    In addition, the West must "maintain its technological lead" - an attempt to solicit support for the US sanctions against the People's Republic, which have so far been rejected by a majority in Europe.

    However, Stoltenberg also stated that the People's Republic was "not seen as an opponent" and that they wanted to continue trading with it - a concession not least to Germany, whose economy is still, perhaps even more than ever, dependent on business with China.

    The NATO foreign ministers had already announced on Tuesday that they would continue to supply Ukraine with weapons and - also to prevent a possible new wave of refugees - to help them repair their critical infrastructure, especially the energy supply.

    Referring to the Russian bombardment of the Ukrainian infrastructure, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock accused Russia of a "brutal breach of civilization". Baerbock thus begins to tear down the conceptual barriers that the government has used so far: the word "break in civilization" is reserved exclusively for the Shoah, the annihilation of the Jews by the Nazis.

    However, discrepancies within NATO were also evident in Bucharest. For example, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba was only allowed to attend an informal dinner with the ministers of the NATO countries, since Hungary continues to block official cooperation with Ukraine - because, according to Budapest, Kyiv disregards the rights of the Hungarian-speaking minority.

    Observers reported that it was clearly noticeable that after a Ukrainian missile hit Poland, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy went too far in demanding that NATO intervene immediately. There was clear reluctance to the urge to supply Kyiv with Western-made main battle tanks.


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