BRUSSELS: NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday he did not see the alliance’s member states deploying more nuclear weapons in Europe in response to a new Russian missile program.
“We don’t want a new Cold War,” the alliance’s secretary general told reporters. “We don’t want a new arms race.
“And I don’t foresee that (NATO) allies will deploy more nuclear weapons in Europe as a response to the new Russian missile,” he added.
“But I see a need — and that is what is going on in NATO — a need to assess the implications of the new Russian missile for our security.”
Stoltenberg was speaking after US President Donald Trump said Monday he was ready to build up the US nuclear arsenal in response to Russia’s SSC-8 missile program (known in Russia as the 9M729).
Already Saturday, Trump had announced the US was pulling out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), arguing that Moscow’s deployment of Novator 9M729 missiles violated the 1987 accord.
On Monday, the European Commission urged Washington and Moscow to keep talking to preserve the treaty — and Stoltenberg acknowledged that Trump’s decision did not have unanimous support among his NATO allies.
But he added: “Russia has now admitted that they are developing and fielding a new missile, the SSC-8. So the problem, the threat, the challenge, is Russian behavior...
“We cannot have a Treaty between two parties that is only respected by one of them. Russia needed to comply in a transparent, viable way,” he said.
NATO ambassadors would meet to discuss the implications of the Russian missile program, said Stoltenberg. They were also trying to organize a meeting between the NATO Council and Russia, he added.
Growing tensions over the nuclear treaty overshadowed a news conference originally scheduled to give details of NATO’s Trident Juncture military exercise in Norway, its largest since the end of the Cold War.
Russia had been invited to observe the exercise “as long as they behave professionally and avoid dangerous situations and behavior,” said Stoltenberg.
Moscow has repeatedly denied that it has violated the INF Treaty, arguing that in fact it is the United States that has not respected its terms.
Signed in 1987 by US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, it bans missiles that can travel distances of between 310 and 3,400 miles (500 and 5,500 kilometers).
NATO does not want new nuclear arms race: alliance chief
NATO does not want new nuclear arms race: alliance chief
EU assembly weighs freezing US trade deal over Trump’s Greenland threats
- Signatories were mainly fellow members of Clausen’s Left Group, but also included center-left Social Democrats and Greens
- Greens lawmaker Anna Cavazzini said the only argument in favor of the deal was to bring stability
BRUSSELS: The European Parliament is considering putting on hold the European Union’s implementation of the trade deal struck with the United States in protest over threats by US President Donald Trump to seize Greenland.
The European Parliament has been debating legislative proposals to remove many of the EU’s import duties on US goods — the bulk of the trade deal with the US — and to continue zero duties for US lobsters, initially agreed with Trump in 2020.
It was due to set its position in votes on January 26-27, which the MEPs said should now be postponed.
Leading members of the cross-parliamentary trade committee met to discuss the issue on Wednesday morning and decide whether to postpone the vote. In the end, they took no decision and settled on reconvening next week.
A parliamentary source said left-leaning and centrist groups favored taking action, such as a postponement.
A group of 23 lawmakers also urged the EU assembly’s president Roberta Metsola on Wednesday to freeze work on the agreement as long as the US administration continued its threats to take control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.
“If we go through and approve a deal that Trump has seen as a personal victory, while he makes claims for Greenland and refuses to rule out any manner in which to achieve this, it will be easily seen as rewarding him and his actions,” the letter drafted by Danish lawmaker Per Clausen said.
Signatories were mainly fellow members of Clausen’s Left Group, but also included center-left Social Democrats and Greens.
Greens lawmaker Anna Cavazzini said the only argument in favor of the deal was to bring stability.
“Trump’s actions show again and again that chaos is his only offer,” she said.
French lawmaker Valerie Hayer, head of the centrist Renew Europe group, said on Tuesday the EU should consider holding off a vote if Trump’s threats continued.
Many lawmakers have complained that the US trade deal is lopsided, with the EU required to cut most import duties while the US sticks to a broad rate of 15 percent.
However, freezing the deal risks angering Trump, which could lead to higher US tariffs. The Trump administration has also ruled out any concessions, such as cutting tariffs on spirits or steel, until the deal is in place.
