NATO should show Russia it would defend the Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - in the event of attack, the US has said, as Russia's recent invasion of Georgia continues to send ripples through European security arrangements. "They are feeling a little rattled by seeing Russia use military force to invade a sovereign, small neighbouring country. We need to send signals to shore them up a little bit," US ambassador to NATO, Kurt Volker, told the Financial Times in an interview on Tuesday (2 September). Latvia and Estonia have large ethnic-Russian minorities The "signals" could come in the form of military "planning and exercising" and "not in a provocative way," he explained. "We will have to make sure ... that the Article 5 commitment is realisable not just as a political matter but as a military matter too," Mr Volker added. "NATO being credible is what's important."
NATO should show Russia it would defend the Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - in the event of attack, the US has said, as Russia's recent invasion of Georgia continues to send ripples through European security arrangements.
"They are feeling a little rattled by seeing Russia use military force to invade a sovereign, small neighbouring country. We need to send signals to shore them up a little bit," US ambassador to NATO, Kurt Volker, told the Financial Times in an interview on Tuesday (2 September).
Latvia and Estonia have large ethnic-Russian minorities
The "signals" could come in the form of military "planning and exercising" and "not in a provocative way," he explained.
"We will have to make sure ... that the Article 5 commitment is realisable not just as a political matter but as a military matter too," Mr Volker added. "NATO being credible is what's important."
So the US statement is a statement of reality, but is unhelpful in the same way that a lot of US actions and statements of the post-Soviet era are now unhelpful. Not so much butt out, but STFU would be nice. keep to the Fen Causeway
And the reference to Article 5 from a US Ambassador is rather ironic, given that the US is the only country of the Alliance in favor of which that article was ever invoked, IIRC... and they declined the help. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
