NATO members urge dialogue with Russia, welcome Montenegro accession

Record ID: 102851

  • Title: NATO members urge dialogue with Russia, welcome Montenegro accession
  • Date: 19th May 2016
  • Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (MAY 19, 2016) (REUTERS) ICELANDIC FOREIGN MINISTER LILJA ALFREDSDOTTIR ARRIVING
  • Embargoed: 3rd June 2016 15:52
  • Keywords: NATO Russia security Montenegro accession
  • Location: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
  • City: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
  • Country: Belgium
  • Reuters ID: LVA0034IH4O5J
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:NATO foreign ministers on Thursday (May 19) gathered for security talks in Brussels and said they encouraged dialogue with Russia in which they must communicate a firm stand.
    "I think that we need to talk to Russia, for many reasons, and to have a clear stand with Russia. In my view it is important that we have a firm stand, that we tell Russia directly that they should drop out of Ukraine, that they should stop provoking as they have been doing in so many places," Danish Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen said, adding that they should hold a meeting with Moscow.
    "Dialogue for dialogue, for the sake of dialogue, means really not much and it is not deterrence, especially if it is used for smoke screen to continue the same policy, aggression, aggressive behaviour. So this is really not helping. We have to be consistent, we have to be clear...and we really have to defend values and principles," Lithuanian Foreign Minister, Linas Linkevicius, said.
    During the two-day meeting, the military alliance will sign an accession agreement with Montenegro, a first step towards making the Western Balkan country the 29th member of NATO.
    The smallest of the former Yugoslav Republics, Montenegro opened accession talks with the European Union in 2011 and was invited to join NATO in December.
    NATO's chief Jens Stoltenberg has said that the decision to invite Montenegro was not directed at Russia, that NATO is a defensive alliance meant to provide security.
    Backed by an increase in U.S. military spending, NATO is planning its biggest build-up in eastern Europe since the Cold War to deter Russia.
    Moscow opposes any NATO extension to former communist areas of eastern and southeastern Europe, part of an east-west struggle for influence over former Soviet satellites that is at the center of the crisis in Ukraine.
    The allies are expected to offer Moscow a renewed dialogue in the NATO-Russia Council, which has not met since 2014, about improved military transparency to avoid surprise events and misunderstandings.
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