NATO will boost its number of troops on high alert by more than sevenfold to over 300,000, the alliance’s secretary-general says, as it prepares to adopt a new stance describing Moscow as a direct threat.
Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine has sparked a major geopolitical shift in the West, prompting once neutral countries Finland and Sweden to apply to join NATO and Ukraine to secure the status of candidate to join the European Union.
“Russia has walked away from the partnership and the dialogue that NATO has tried to establish with Russia for many years,” NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said in Brussels ahead of a NATO summit in Madrid later this week.
“They have chosen confrontation instead of dialogue. We regret that, but of course then we need to respond to that reality.”
The June 28 to 30 NATO summit comes at a pivotal moment for the alliance after failures in Afghanistan and internal discord during the era of former US president Donald Trump, who threatened to pull Washington out of the alliance.
Persecution Live 