United Nato’s message to Russia
Alliance has ‘responsibility’ to keep war from spilling into other countries
An unstable world could get even more dangerous if Nato does not remain strong and united, the head of the alliance said yesterday at the end of a summit where Western leaders labelled Russia “a direct threat” to the security of their nations.
During their three-day meeting in Madrid, Nato members confronted a geopolitical landscape marked by bigpower competition and myriad threats, from cyberattacks to climate change.
The leaders cast their sights around the world — drawing a rebuke after accusing China of posing “serious challenges ” to global stability.
But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine dominated the summit and while Nato nations remain united, strains have emerged as the cost of energy and other essential goods has skyrocketed, partly because of the war and tough Western sanctions on Russia.
There also are tensions over how the war will end and what, if any, concessions Ukraine should make.
“We live in a more dangerous world and we live in a more unpredictable world, and we live in a world where we have a hot war going on in Europe,” Nato Secretary-general Jens
Stoltenberg said. “At the same time, we also know that this can get worse.”
That is why the Western military alliance has a “core responsibility” to keep the war in Ukraine from spilling into other countries while making clear to Moscow that it would “protect every inch of Nato territory”, Stoltenberg said.
That territory is set to grow. At the summit, Nato leaders formally invited Finland and Sweden to join the alliance, after striking an agreement to end opposition from Turkey.
However, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he could still block the Nordic countries’ membership, if the Nordic pair do not keep their promises.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned he would respond in kind if Sweden or Finland agreed to host Nato troops and military infrastructure.
However, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said Putin’s threats were “nothing new”.
“Of course, we have to expect some kind of surprises from Putin, but I doubt that he is attacking Sweden or Finland directly,” Kallas said.
Nato leaders turned their gaze south for a final summit session yesterday focused on Africa’s Sahel region and the Middle East, where political instability — aggravated by climate change and food insecurity sparked by the war in Ukraine — is driving large numbers of migrants toward Europe.
In some good news Russian forces yesterday abandoned Ukraine’s Snake Island, ending one of the longest-running battles of the war in a victory for Kyiv, and raised hopes that a blockade on critical grain exports from Odessa could be lifted helping to ease the food shortage crisis.
The Russian evacuation followed intense Ukrainian artillery bombardments and is likely to be hailed as proof that Western-supplied weapons can turn the war.
Nato nations have given Ukraine billions in military and civilian aid to strengthen its resistance. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who addressed the summit by video link, asked for more.
He urged Nato to send modern artillery systems and other weapons — or “face a delayed war between Russia and yourself ”.
“The question is, who’s next? Moldova? Or the Baltics? Or Poland? The answer is: all of them,” he said.
Moscow’s ministry of defence said its forces evacuated the island as a “goodwill gesture” to demonstrate that Russia is not impeding United Nations’ efforts to reopen sea lanes to Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.
“To organise humanitarian grain corridors as part of the implementation of joint agreements reached with the participation of the UN, the Russian Federation decided to leave its positions on Zmiinyi Island,” it said yesterday.
Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of deterring civilian shipping from using Ukraine’s southern ports of Odessa and Mykoliaev in order to strangle millions of tonnes of grain exports destined for Africa and the Middle East and sparking the global food crisis. Agencies