NATO wary of Russian missile treaty violations

‘Russia has grand designs of dominating Europe,’ Pompeo says in show of unity

BRUSSELS — Taking aim at Russia, NATO’s civilian chief said Wednesday the alliance is studying a range of options to counter Moscow’s alleged missile treaty violations, and America’s top diplomat accused the Russians of having “grand designs” to dominate Europe.

In remarks at the outset of a NATO defence ministers meeting, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the military alliance is considering ways to counter Russian missiles without sparking an arms race. He called the missiles “a significant risk” to Europe.

In Poland, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Moscow’s efforts to divide the European Union and NATO and disrupt Western democracies must be countered through boosting NATO’s presence.

“Russia has grand designs of dominating Europe and reasserting its influence on the world stage. Vladimir Putin seeks to splinter the NATO alliance, weaken the United States and disrupt Western democracies,” he said.

“Russia’s invasions of Georgia and Ukraine, its unprovoked attack on Ukrainian naval vessels this past November and its ongoing hybrid warfare against us and our allies are direct challenges to our security and to our way of life,” he added.

Pompeo made the comments while visiting a NATO forward position in northeast Poland about 70 kilometres from the border with the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

Because of Russia’s ongoing involvement in Ukraine, the U.S. and others take seriously the possibility that Moscow may try to open a new front along Europe’s eastern flank, Pompeo said. He said that threat underscores the indispensable nature of NATO — a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy for the past 70 years but the target of harsh criticism by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has cast the allies as freeloaders unwilling to foot the bill for their own defence.

Also throwing U.S. support behind NATO, U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence told hundreds of Polish and U.S. troops in Warsaw, Poland on Wednesday, “We must stand together in defence of our alliance and all that we hold dear.”

Against the backdrop of rising Western tensions with Russia, the NATO meeting in Brussels focused initially on the expected demise of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty, known as the INF treaty. The U.S. signed the pact with the Soviet Union in 1987. The allies are considering how to respond collectively to what they say are Russian violations of the treaty.

The United States on Feb. 2 launched the six-month process of leaving the INF treaty, insisting that a new Russian missile system violates the pact. Russia denies it is in contravention and has announced that it will pull out, too.

The INF bans production, testing and deployment of landbased cruise and ballistic missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometres. European NATO allies insist that the pact is a cornerstone of continental security, although after Pompeo announced earlier this month that Washington was beginning the formal process of withdrawal, NATO endorsed the move.

Speaking at NATO headquarters, where defence ministers are discussing what to do if the imperiled treaty is abandoned, Stoltenberg said: “This is very serious. We will take our time.”

Later, in remarks made alongside Pat Shanahan, the acting U.S. secretary of defence, Stoltenberg said, “We need to plan for a world without the treaty and with more Russian missiles.”