12 Oct. 2022 - 13 Oct. 2022 - Meeting of NATO Ministers of Defence, NATO HQ, Brussels, Belgium
- Short remarks by the NATO Secretary General and the US Secretary of Defense
- Meeting of the NATO Nuclear Planning Group in Defence Ministers sessionNo public opening remarks, no media coverage
(previous statement)
- Bilateral meeting with the Minister of Defence of NorwayNo public opening remarks, no media coverage
NATO Defence Ministers will meet in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday (12-13 October 2022) to step up and sustain support to Ukraine and continue to strengthen NATO’s own defences, against the backdrop of Russia’s most significant escalation since the start of the Ukraine conflict...
On Thursday, the Secretary General will chair a meeting of the Nuclear Planning Group to discuss Russia’s dangerous nuclear rhetoric and the role of NATO’s nuclear capability in preserving peace and deterring aggression. Next week, NATO will hold its long-planned deterrence exercise, Steadfast Noon, “this is routine training, which happens every year to keep our deterrent safe, secure and effective.” Mr Stoltenberg said.
NATO Defence Ministers will meet this week at an important moment for transatlantic security.
We will review our progress on strengthening NATO’s deterrence and defence.
We will further increase the protection of our critical infrastructure, in light of the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines...
...NATO is not party to the conflict...
We are closely monitoring Russia’s nuclear forces.
We have not seen any changes in Russia’s posture.
But we remain vigilant.At the Madrid Summit in June, NATO leaders decided a fundamental shift in our defence and deterrence to respond to the new security reality.¨...
We will also address the protection of our critical infrastructure.
NATO has been working on this for many years.
And following the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, we have further enhanced our vigilance across all domains.
We have doubled our presence in the Baltic and North Seas.
To over 30 ships.
Supported by maritime patrol aircraft and undersea capabilities.
These efforts are closely coordinated by NATO’s Maritime Command.
Allies are also increasing security around key installations.
And stepping up intelligence and intelligence sharing.
We will take further steps to strengthen our resilience and protect our critical infrastructure.
Any deliberate attack against Allies’ critical infrastructure would be met with a united and determined response.
[MRT: The Nordstream was attacked by one member - this investigation and data set identified it was a UK, a submarine seems to be used. There are worries that Russia would consider the missin as an attack against its state asset aka declaration of war. Hence the framing of the event as a "sabotage". The alliance was worried about retaliatory response to the UK, retaliation in kind in which Russia would destroy the UK´s key infrastructure. Note the separate meeting with Norway and how that coincides with the 1909-2022 post here]
We will be joined by EU High Representative Borrell.
Because NATO and the European Union face the same security challenges.
[MRT: The UK is in general in a different strategic position hence the statement makes sense only if same security challenges the EU has are applied to the NATO - indirect confirmation that the UK has been involved in the Nordstream affair.]
We have a difficult winter ahead.
[MRT: The NATO and EU have jointly decided to cover-up the perpetrator of the Nordstream affair.]
So it is even more important that North America and Europe continue to stand united...
NATO Secretary General: Now is the right time to be firm and to be clear that NATO is there to protect and defend all Allies. And this is a long time planned exercise, actually planned before the invasion of Ukraine. It's a routine exercise, and it's an exercise to ensure that our nuclear deterrent remains safe, secure and effective. I visited this exercise a few years ago. We have been open about the exercise and I think it would send a very wrong signal if we suddenly now cancelled a routine, long time planned exercise because of the war in Ukraine. That would be absolutely the wrong signal to send. And we need to understand that NATO's firm, predictable behavior, our military strength, is the best way to prevent escalation. We are there to preserve peace, to prevent escalation and prevent any attack on NATO Allied countries.
So if we now created the grounds for any misunderstanding, miscalculation in Moscow about our willingness to protect and defend all Allies, we would increase the risk of escalation and that's the last thing we will do...
NATO Secretary General: We are constantly consulting among NATO Allies. We have already conducted three NATO Summits this year. We will convene a summit when needed, so we have the meetings we need, when we need them. And we are constantly assessing also the need to then convene yet another summit to ensure that we have consultations and the right messages from NATO at all levels. We will have a ministerial meeting this week, and that provides a good opportunity to send a clear message and then we'll make decisions on a potential summit when we think the right the time is right.
Then on the nature of the war. Well, this is an illegal invasion of another country. It is a clear violation of international law. Russia invaded a sovereign independent nation, violated its territorial integrity and sovereignty. That actually didn't start in 2022 or in February of this year. It started in 2014. But of course they scaled up their aggressive actions against Ukraine in February, and they have violated international law in a blatant way. And we have also seen horrendous and horrific attacks against civilians, we have seen the reports from Bucha, from many other places in Ukraine. And the important thing now is that all facts are made available, that we have thorough investigations, NATO Allies support the ongoing investigations, and that those responsible are held accountable for these atrocities...
NATO Secretary General: NATO is prepared for any threat, any attack, against any NATO Ally. And that's the reason why we have NATO, to be able to deter also nuclear threats. And this was important before the invasion of Ukraine, it has become even more important after. Not least in light of the nuclear rhetoric from President Putin and from Russia. This nuclear rhetoric, or veiled threats, are dangerous and reckless. Russia knows that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. And we also conveyed clearly to Russia that they will have severe consequences if they use nuclear weapons in any way, including low yield nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Then, by ensuring that we have credible deterrence and defence, we are helping to reduce the risk of escalation.
[MRT: My statement about Nordstream suspect: "Only a state sitting at the UN with nuclear deterrence could be safe from the retaliation after attacking Russian key export infrastructure. Excluding USA which left Baltic Sea before the mission escalated, as the data talk, the only such country left is the UK.]
And therefore it is important that since 2014, we have implemented the biggest reinforcement of our collective defence since the end of the Cold War. So we were prepared when Russia invaded Ukraine in February. And since then, we have further stepped up, increased our presence in the eastern part of the Alliance. We activated our defence plans the morning of the invasion, and we made decisions in Madrid in June to further strengthen our collective defence.
The purpose of this is to prevent war, preserve peace, and including prevent any use of nuclear weapons.
Summary: The UK´s attack on the key EU an Russian energy infrastructure has severely fractured the transatlantic alliance. The NATO is "zombified". One member has acted outside the charter as a rogue state and forced the alliance to cover-up or face a breakup of the alliance. This also increased significantly the threat of nuclear exchange. See other statements by Biden here.
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