Corbyn urges Nato to rebuild ties with Russia

NATO should de-escalate conflict with Russia in order to focus on the climate crisis and the excessive wealth of billionaires, Jeremy Corbyn has said.

In a show of support for Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, who said last week there should be a “change in direction” by the security bloc and closer ties with Moscow, the Labour leader called yesterday for “a wider perspective” on threats to the West.

He gave a speech as Nato’s secretary general refused to deny that Tony Blair and David Cameron could both be given roles at the defence bloc.

Jens Stoltenberg said he knew Mr Blair and Mr Cameron from his time as prime minister of Norway and thought they were both “excellent people”.

“Since we are not decided to establish a group I think it’s a bit early to try to start to appoint members of the group,” he said.

In the run-up to this week’s Nato summit, Mr Corbyn said the group should engage more with Russia and focus on tackling global inequality.

“In Nato, we will work for the alliance to reduce tensions in Europe and beyond,” he said. “That should be the focus of this week’s Nato summit in London. President Macron is right to press the case for a change of direction in Nato policy, including the need to de-escalate conflict with Russia and a wider perspective on the most serious threats to our common security.”

While urging closer ties with the

Russian government, Mr Corbyn said the real threats were “the climate and environmental crisis and the conflicts it can trigger, as well as the huge scale of global inequality”.

Nato should focus on the refugee crisis and the fact that “26 billionaires now own as much wealth as the poorest half of the world’s population”, he said.

Mr Corbyn said a Labour government would “actively lead multilateral efforts” to disarm the bloc of its nuclear weapons.

He has long been a critic of Nato, and has described it as an “instrument of cold war manipulation” and “engine for the delivery of oil to the oil companies”. The Labour leader’s speech allies him with Mr Macron, who last week said that Nato was suffering a “brain death” over the lack of cooperation between the United States and Europe within the alliance.

The French president suggested leaders should consider strengthening ties with Russia, in a speech that was warmly welcomed by the Kremlin but criticised by the US and Germany.

Mr Stoltenberg said he would address Mr Macron’s comments during this week’s summit in London, telling reporters that they would “sit down and discuss them and fully understand the messages and the motivations”.

Mr Corbyn also accused Boris Johnson of being the “world’s leading sycophant” towards Donald Trump, and indicated that he would be willing to chill relations with the US in order to avoid supporting the Israeli government and creating conflict with China.

“From climate change denial to unconditional support for the Israeli far Right, from racism to confrontation with China, Trump is taking the world on a dangerous path,” he said.

“Britain must make its own foreign policy free from a knee-jerk subservience to a US administration which repudiates our values.”

Mr Corbyn made his intervention in advance of Wednesday’s 70th anniversary Nato summit, where leaders are expected to address the bloc’s relationship with Russia and the possibility of a new nuclear treaty.