NATO is ready to discuss with Russia the reduction of nuclear weapons – Stoltenberg

According to the Secretary General, the mutual reduction of armaments will benefit both Russia and the military bloc. However, NATO does not plan to withdraw its troops from countries that have joined the Alliance since 1997.

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NATO is ready to participate in negotiations with Russia on mutual arms reductions, including nuclear weapons. About this in an interview with the Canadian television channel CBC declared Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

According to him, NATO member countries are ready for balanced measures to reduce weapons.

Jens Stoltenberg on the air of the TV channel expressed the hope that this procedure will benefit both Russia and the North Atlantic Alliance itself.

“We are ready for balanced, verifiable measures to reduce conventional weapons and nuclear missiles. This (mutual arms reduction – ed.) would be good for both Russia and NATO,” the NATO Secretary General said.

At the same time, Jens Stoltenberg stressed that the North Atlantic Alliance is rejecting Russian demand for non-expansion and, therefore, does not intend to withdraw its troops from member countries that joined the military bloc after 1997.

“We cannot agree that we should not have NATO troops in all countries that have joined the Alliance since 1997. In fact, this is half of our members. This (withdrawal of NATO troops – ed.) will mean that half our members cannot be protected by NATO troops.Then they (the states that have joined the bloc since 1997 – ed.) will be a kind of second-class NATO members,” continued the Secretary General of the Alliance.

On the air of the TV channel, Jens Stoltenberg recalled that in order to resolve the war in Donbass, “flexibility in diplomacy” should be shown by Russia, not Ukraine. The NATO Secretary General called Moscow an aggressor and added that it would be strange to expect a “victim of aggression” to de-escalate the armed conflict.

Jens Stoltenberg also noted that the North Atlantic Alliance is ready to sit down at the negotiating table and listen to the Kremlin’s concerns on the Ukrainian issue. The NATO Secretary General called the possible full-scale invasion of the Russian army into Ukraine a big strategic mistake, which “will cost a lot of blood.”

Recall January 7 Jens Stoltenberg warned of the threat of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine and stated that diplomacy in negotiations with Moscow might not work.

Following the results of the bilateral meeting between the United States and Russia, which took place in Geneva, the Russian Foreign Ministry demanded that NATO went to meet the demands of the Kremlin.

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