“NATO Allies are united in their response to the ongoing Russia’s violation of the INF Treaty. Therefore Moscow has to be kept clear of the doubt whether the Alliance is ready to take every measure necessary to ensure the security of the Allies and reliability of the Alliance’s deterrence and defence measures,” Minister of National Defence Raimundas Karoblis states at the NATO Defence Ministers meeting in Brussels on June 26–27.
At the most important session of June 26 NATO Defence Ministers conferred on a wide range of practical measures that would be taken in case the Treaty would come to demise on August 2, the deadline for Russia to come back to compliance with the Treaty it had been violating for several years already.
According to Minister R. Karoblis, the threat from Russia is not decreasing, therefore Lithuania supports all the Alliance’s measures of military and political response. Minister also underscored the importance of arms control and noted that the goal of arms control was to strengthen the security of NATO Allies. He also pointed out the importance of military exercises, especially in the area of air defence, for demonstration of the Alliance’s resolve and capabilities, and stressed that the growing threat from Russia underlined the standing obvious necessity to continue increasing defence spending as the key condition for upgrading and modernising capabilities.
Thursday’s agenda of the NATO Defence Ministers’ sessions include burden sharing and enhancement of deterrence and defence, also, further strategy of NATO and its partners for achieving peace and stability in Afghanistan in a session with NATO partners in the operation in Afghanistan.
Photo credits: NATO
