Brussels 27.12.2021 Anna van Densky There is no way that Russia joins NATO, since the West does not want to have rivals comparable in influence at the global stage, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the Solovyov Live YouTube channel on Monday,December 27. (Image: illustration).
Reflecting the question about the possibility of joining NATO on certain conditions, on an equal footing, the diplomat said that he did not assume such an opportunity for Russian Federation.
Spoke with @SecBlinken, @ABaerbock & @BWallaceMP to discuss #Russia's military build-up in & around #Ukraine. We continue to assess the implications for our security & will do what it takes to ensure the security & defence of all #NATO Allies, while remaining open to dialogue.
“I do not consider this possible, as the whole process does not revolve around NATO or the EU, it is about the West’s unwillingness to have any competitors in the international arena that are in the slightest degree comparable in terms of influence,” Lavrov explained.
According to the Minister, such attitude of the Western states derives their “hysteria over the rise of China”, which agreed to the rule introduced in the global economy and “outplayed the West on its own field”.
💬 President #Putin: @NATO's further expansion eastward is unacceptable.
Is it Russia who deploys missiles near the US borders?
Brussels 19.08.2021 Extraordinary Meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs – Brussels, 20 August 2021
An extraordinary virtual meeting of the North Atlantic Council (NAC) at the level of Ministers of Foreign Affairs will be held via secure teleconference on Friday 20 August 2021. NATO Foreign Ministers will discuss developments in Afghanistan.
An extraordinary virtual meeting of the North Atlantic Council at the level of Foreign Ministers will be held on Friday 20 August 2021. #NATO Foreign Ministers will discuss developments in #Afghanistan.
The meeting will be chaired by the NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg.
The meeting will start on 20 August 2021 at +/- 14h00 Brussels. The Secretary General is expected to brief the press after the meeting.
Spoke with @EU_Commission President @vonderleyen and @eucopresident Charles Michel about the situation in #Afghanistan. #NATO continues to work closely with the #EU & the rest of the international community to coordinate and facilitate evacuations.
Previously at the press-briefing in NATO HQ Brussels on August 17, the Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg said: “The North Atlantic Council has met to discuss Afghanistan.
“The situation is extremely serious and unpredictable.
Kabul has fallen, and the Taliban have taken control of most of the country.
I am deeply saddened by what I see unfolding in Afghanistan.
#NATO Allies met to discuss #Afghanistan. The situation is extremely serious & unpredictable. Those taking power have the responsibility to ensure that international terrorists do not regain a foothold. Allies have the capabilities & vigilance to respond. https://t.co/f0cicsUoVo
“NATO’s focus right now is to ensure the safe departure of personnel from Allied and partner countries, and of the Afghans who have helped us.
NATO has been working round the clock to maintain operations at Kabul international airport.
Around 800 NATO civilian personnel have remained to provide key functions under very challenging circumstances.
“Including air traffic control, fuel, and communications.
And I would like to thank them.
Let me also thank the military forces of NATO Allies, in particular Turkey, the United States and the United Kingdom for their vital role in securing the airport.
Operations at the airport are now gradually resuming.
And during today’s meeting Allies announced that they are sending additional airplanes.
“We have also maintained our diplomatic presence.
Our Senior Civilian Representative Ambassador Pontecorvo and his team have been working closely with Allies and the rest of the international community to coordinate and facilitate the evacuation.
And we remain committed to completing evacuations including of our Afghan colleagues, as soon as possible.
The Taliban must respect and facilitate the safe departure of all those who wish to leave.
The airport, as well as roads and border crossings, must be open.
All Afghan men, women and children deserve to live in safety and dignity.
There must be a peaceful transfer of power to an inclusive government.
With no revenge or retribution.
“A government that does not respect the fundamental rights of all Afghans and reinstates the reign of fear, risks international isolation.
“The United States agreed with the Taliban last year that US troops would withdraw by May.
And after many rounds of consultations, all Allies agreed to follow the US decision.
Ending our military mission was not easy.
We were faced with a serious dilemma.
Either leave, and risk seeing the Taliban regain control.
Or stay, and risk renewed attacks, and an open-ended combat mission.
“We never intended to stay in Afghanistan forever.
Over the past few years, from over 100,000 troops we went down to less than 10,000 – and now to zero.
But what we have seen in the last few weeks was a military and political collapse at a speed which had not been anticipated.
Parts of the Afghan security forces fought bravely.
But they were unable to secure the country.
Because ultimately, the Afghan political leadership failed to stand up to the Taliban and to achieve the peaceful solution that Afghans desperately wanted.
This failure of Afghan leadership led to the tragedy we are witnessing today.
“At the same time, we need to have an honest, clear-eyed assessment of NATO’s own engagement in Afghanistan.
Despite our considerable investment and sacrifice over two decades, the collapse was swift and sudden.
There are many lessons to be learned.
“But we should also recognise the gains we have made.
NATO Allies and partners went into Afghanistan after 9/11 to prevent the country from serving as a safe haven for international terrorists to attack us.
In the last two decades, there have been no terrorist attacks on Allied soil organised from Afghanistan.
Those now taking power have the responsibility to ensure that international terrorists do not regain a foothold.
Allies have the capabilities and the vigilance to address future terrorist threats from Afghanistan.
“Due to our military presence and the support of the international community, a new generation of men and women have grown up in a new Afghanistan.
Able to get education, take part in the political process, run their own businesses, and enjoy a vibrant media scene.
Today’s Afghanistan is very different to the Afghanistan of 2001.
So those gains cannot be easily reversed.
“The world will be watching.
And must continue to support a stable and peaceful Afghanistan”.
Brussels 25.07.2021 Is Former Croatia President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic in Line for Top NATO Job? As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Politico portal, announced that for the first time in the 72-year history of the Alliance, the incumbent Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is looking for a successor, preferably from Eastern Europe. Taking into consideration the equity agenda, the time for change and break glass ceiling, the main candidate is Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, who was a former Vice President of NATO and was also an ambassador to the United States.
(Image above: archive, Moscow The 2018 FIFA World Cup Final: Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovich with Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin)
— Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović (@KolindaGK) July 23, 2021
Another factor is whether the country from which the presidential candidate is coming from meets the NATO target of spending of a minimum of 2% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
It has been noted that Croatia’s former President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic has an “impressive biography”, leading this hypothesis to be regarded among relevant political leaders and diplomats.
📍“Let’s all work together a lot closer. Women politicians are facing the same challenges all over the world, having a network like WPL to lean on is a big help. Together we are stronger.” @KolindaGK – #WPLSummit21pic.twitter.com/ssyPhxwARF
— Women Political Leaders (@WPLeadersOrg) June 21, 2021
Back during the 2015 Croatian presidential campaign, the then HDZ candidate didn’t want to reveal what her salary was as an assistant working at North-Atlantic Treaty Organisaton.
— Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović (@KolindaGK) June 21, 2021
“I still follow the instructions given to me by NATO, which oblige me as a former NATO employee to make sure this data isn’t to be disclosed to the public, and the salary is much less than twenty thousand euros,” said former President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic at the confrontation at which the matter was discussed with Ivo Josipovic (SDP), who claimed that salaries in NATO were not kept secret.
Bivša predsjednica Hrvatske Kolinda Grabar Kitarović izjavila je da je počašćena time što je mediji spominju kao favoritkinju za funkciju generalne sekretarke NATO i dodala da je o eventualnoj kandidaturi prerano govoriti. #bhrthttps://t.co/AZsyAKi72E
Afterwards in late 2016, there was speculation that former British Prime Minister David Cameron potentially becoming NATO’s new secretary general, and the British newspaper The Independent reported that the salary for the post was £220,000 a year (which is around €21,000 per month). According to the document from the beginning of 2020, the highest monthly salary paid out to a NATO employee stood at €23,646.
W przyszłym roku kończy się kadencja obecnego szefa NATO Jensa Stoltenberga. Na forum Sojuszu trwają już rozmowy odnośnie tego, kto mógłby być jego następcą. Największe szanse na zastąpienie Norwega ma była prezydent Chorwacji Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović.https://t.co/iJHgwvSPOz
Fast forward to November 2020, NATO asked its members to increase funds in order to further improve the salaries of its employees, in accordance with the agreed methodology, which some allies refused, considering it inappropriate at hard times of the pandemic.
At Headquarters, formal talks on Stoltenberg’s successor have just begun, and the new Secretary-General is scheduled to introduce the NATO leaders’ summit in Madrid in late spring or early summer next year.
Image below: A competitor of Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovich in NATO top job race – incumbent Estonia President Kersti Kaljulaid.
Anna van Densky OPINION UkrainePresident Volodimir Zelensky declarations at NATO headquaters could be hardly considered as good news for inhabitants of Donbass – joint drills in July with Alliance vessels in Black Sea can not be mistaken for a flight of a dove with an olive branch.
#Brussels#Zelensky didn't dare to give press-conference, replacing it by reading his statement because he tried to avoid questions of gross human rights violations in #Ukraine reaching point #Hungary blocks any #NATO advancements after totalitarian language law. pic.twitter.com/sZtqQaiIlK
Zelensky is ready to negotiate Donbass conflicts, but only in the context of NATO integration. It means to continue imposing on Russians in Donbass the vector of development they had initially rejected – to choice a camp of Russia’s foes. But not only, it means the complete submission to a totalitarian Ukrainelanguage law, stripping Donbass of their minority national and linguistic rights, destroying their identity.
National identity became a huge problem for ethnic Russian on the terrotries of the former USSR, when a number of former Soviet Republics have chosen for openly anti-Russian policy, eradicating Russian language and identity in contradiction with international law, and European values. Ukrainehas taken an aggressive stance against Russian minority, who voted for its independence unaware it would be the beginning of the end of their national identity profile.
President Putin promise to facilitate the procedure of issuing Russian passports to Ukrainiancitizens of Russian origin, based on widely used practiced of jus sanguinis, accepted by the majority of the NATO allies, has caused concerns of the Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. He said it would ”destabilise” Ukraine, omitting the fact, that the opposite, namely the attempt to eradicate Russianidentity is behind the political turbulence of Ukraine, degrading into an armed conflict.
The denial of the fact that the Ukrainian state, being composed in different political contexts from different territories with autochtone populations, causes tensions fueling into conflict. In rejection of human rights, identity rights, linguistic rights of Russian, Hungarian and other minorities, Ukraine weakens the state, wasting a great deal of time and energy for suppressing the justified claims.
#NATO#Zelensky reading his speach as a student under eyes of his professor in #Brussels A lot to be done to improve his English. Or dare to speak his mother tongue in North Alliance HQ? pic.twitter.com/kVl6gmYcAd
The declared by Jens Stoltenberg Ukraine-NATO drills in Black Sea in July, will serve as demonstration of power to Moscow, senseless and dangerous, enhancing Russia,the nuclear superpower to protect its borders, and assume it role as a guarantor of psychical survival of Donbass populations, threatened to be exterminated by Ukrainianneo-nazi as it happened in Odessa massacre (2014), where they cremated Russians alive.
The 5th anniversary of the Odessa massacre is upon us. Dozens of innocents—even pregnant women and teens—were lured into the House of Trade Unions and set on fire. Perpetrators and their backers did not receive adequate consequences. I’d rather not remember, but I can’t forget. pic.twitter.com/R9vzy625t3
The official restoration of fascism in Ukraine took place in 2010, when President Yushchenkoattributed status of national hero of Ukraine to a nazi criminal and terrorist Stepan Bandera, who led extermination of 300 000 Jews in Ukraine in a number of huge pogroms.
Vos protégés ukrainiens ! Des adorateurs de Stepan Bandera avec les partis néonazis Pravy Sektor et Svoboda ! pic.twitter.com/DoZjhtXpgl
— 🇫🇷Emmanuel Maquereau🇫🇷 (@ManuMakro) May 26, 2019
Jens Stoltenberg underlined that NATO is an alliance of democracies, subsequently the West should require respect of democratic values first, before undertaking rapprochement with Ukraine, contaminated by neo-nazis. The enforcement of Kiev by NATO without demanding authorities to assume their responsibilities to respect democratic values, and minority rights will also nourish the most marginal political forces, interpreting the rapprochement as la carte blanche to return to Stepan Bandera ideology of Ukrainian nationalism.
Anna Van Densky blog 