NATO admits it’s been preparing for conflict with Russia since 2014
(:E-:N-:R-AZ:C-30:V)
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that increases in deployments and military spending were carried out with Moscow in mind
NATO admits it’s been preparing for conflict with Russia since 2014
FILE PHOTO: French troops inspect military vehicles at the Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base, near the city of Constanta, Romania, June 14, 2022 © AP / Yoan Valat
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Wednesday that increases in military spending and rising numbers of troop deployments in Eastern Europe since 2014 were carried out in anticipation of a conflict with Russia.
Speaking after a meeting of NATO members and partner states in Madrid, Stoltenberg accused Moscow of “using force in the eastern Donbass since 2014,” despite the fact that Kiev’s forces have been shelling cities in the region ever since the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics declared independence from Ukraine that year.
Nevertheless, Stoltenberg said that the US-led military bloc decided in 2014 to start beefing up its forces in Eastern Europe.
“The reality is also that we have been preparing for this since 2014,” he stated. “That is the reason that we have increased our presence in the eastern part of the alliance, why NATO allies have started to invest more in defense, and why we have increased [our] readiness.”
Updated strategy, new members, old enemies: NATO summit highlights
According to NATO figures, the bloc’s European members and Canada have increased their military expenditure by between 1.2% and 5.9% every year since 2014. However, only 10 out of 30 NATO states currently meet the bloc’s target of spending 2% of GDP on defense.
The increase in expenditure has been most noticeable in Eastern Europe and the Baltics, with Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania all meeting the target for the first time in 2022.
Earlier on Wednesday, NATO members agreed to adopt a new Strategic Concept. This policy blueprint sets out the alliance’s stance toward partners, non-members, and adversaries, with the 2022 iteration naming Russia as the “most significant and direct threat” to the bloc.
On the other hand, Moscow has labeled NATO’s expansion into former Soviet states since the end of the Cold War – which Western leaders explicitly promised in the early 1990s would not happen – as a threat against its own security. NATO’s official position on Ukraine, set out in the 2008 Bucharest Declaration, is that it and Georgia “will become members of NATO” at an unspecified future date. Russia has cited Ukraine’s pursuit of NATO membership as a key factor behind the current conflict.
Despite the alliance’s post-Cold War march into the former Eastern Bloc, Stoltenberg claimed on Wednesday that “NATO has strived for a better relationship with Russia for decades.”
Who are we? Boers or Afrikaners? Answer from Dr Mike Du Toit
I had someone write to me about the topic of Boers versus Afrikaners. I decided to approach Dr Mike Du Toit, who was the leader of the Boeremag, and who is a professional academic who is very well versed in our history to answer this. Dr Du Toit not only knows our history in South Africa but also our history in Europe. This was his answer.
Video: When the S.African Govt intercepted my Emails and I got physical proof of it!
This is the craziest thing that happened to me in the early years of my website. This would never happen in the First World ever. But in Africa, strange things can happen.
Get a Free PDF Book: The Liberals by Hilaire Belloc (1922)
This is one of the greatest analyses of the Liberals that has ever been done. This book was published in 1922.Hilaire Belloc was a very prolific French writer and thinker. A wonderful aspect of this book is that it contains information about the Liberals and their hideous deeds (e.g. in Russia) which Liberals have tried very hard to completely remove from history. When you read this book you will realise that in 100 years, absolutely nothing has changed. He also hints at the Liberals being behind the ‘South African War‘ (i.e. The 2nd Anglo Boer War).