Baku – APA. " Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine is the most serious crisis in Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Our vision of a Europe whole, free and at peace has been put into question. Because this is not an isolated incident. It follows a pattern of behaviour. Of military pressure and frozen conflicts in our neighbourhood. Transnistria, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and now Crimea. What connects those crises is one big country unilaterally deciding to rewrite international rules. Overnight, and on its own. And recreate new dividing lines in Europe, twenty-five years after the free peoples of Europe erased them. …”, said the NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen Friday at his speech at Brussels Forum on March 21,
“We had hoped this kind of revisionist behaviour was confined to the 19th century. But we see it is back in the 21st century. It is based on confrontation, not cooperation. And it poses a real threat to the global order based on our values, and the rules that we all agreed to respect. So we need to respond. Both now and in the future. It should be made clear that we can no longer do business as usual with Russia. That is not of our choice. It is of great concern. And it puts into question the very foundation of our cooperation with Russia. NATO’s greatest responsibility is to protect and defend our populations and our territory. To do that, we must ensure that we have the full range of capabilities to deter and defend against any threat”.
Rasmussen noted that to uphold that order, Europe and North America must stand together: “And continue to strengthen our economic and military ties. And how we can continue to protect our values and our way of life. First: We must reinforce our economic ties. The transatlantic trade and investment partnership is key. And it is urgent. Second: We must make energy diversification a strategic transatlantic priority and reduce Europe’s dependency on Russian energy. And third: We must increase defence investment in Europe and strengthen our security cooperation within NATO.
The Secretary-General also stressed that support for Ukraine should be strengthened: “We will intensify political and military cooperation that includes support of the transformation of Ukrainian armed forces into modern and effective organizations, able to provide credible deterrence and defence against military threats; enhancing the ability of the Ukrainian armed forces to work and operate together with armed forces of NATO Allies; increased participation in NATO exercises.
Rasmussen noted that it was supposed that such behavior by Russia has been left in the 20th century: “However, we see that this behavior is back to the 21st century. It is not based on cooperation, but on confrontation and is a threat for the world order based on our values and rules. Therefore, we should respond to this threat now and in the future. It should be clearly explained that we can not work with Russia as previous. This is not our choice and the created situation puts grounds of our cooperation with Russia into question and we are concerned about this. The most important commitment of the NATO is to protect our territories and peoples. To achieve this, we should have opportunities to repulse dangers”.
Rasmussen said that to save the existing world order, Europe and North America should be united, strengthen economic and military links, increase investments in military sphere. Rasmussen called for energy diversification to be a strategic transatlantic priority and reduce Europe's dependency on Russian energy.
He also stressed importance of deepening of political-military cooperation with Ukraine. According to him, Ukraine Armed Forces should change to modern effective structure, Kiev should be supported for increase of activity jointly with armed forces of NATO member states and participation of Ukraine army in the NATO trainings should be extended.
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