BRUSSELS: NATO foreign ministers meet on Thursday to celebrate the 75th anniversary of their alliance, having agreed to start planning for a greater role in coordinating military aid to Ukraine.
On the second day of a meeting in Brussels, the ministers will mark the signing in Washington on April 4, 1949, of the North Atlantic Treaty that established the transatlantic political and military alliance.
“As we face a more dangerous world, the bond between Europe and North America has never been more important,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday.
NATO began with 12 members from North America and Europe, founded in response to growing fears that the Soviet Union posed a military threat to European democracies.
At its heart is the concept of collective defense, the idea that an attack on one member is considered an attack on all, giving US military protection to Western Europe.
Seventy-five years later, NATO has 32 members and has retaken a central role in world affairs, after Russia’s war in Ukraine prompted European governments to view Moscow once more as a major security threat.
NATO’s two newest members, Finland and Sweden, joined in direct response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Democratic nations, free people chose to join (NATO) unlike how Russia expands by annexation or illegal aggression,” Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen told reporters.
Russia said on Wednesday that NATO had returned to a Cold War mindset. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters NATO had no place in the “multipolar world” Moscow says it seeks to build to end US dominance.
NATO ministers agreed to start planning for a greater NATO role in coordinating security assistance and training for Ukraine.
Under a proposal by Stoltenberg, NATO would take over work done by a US-led ad-hoc coalition known as the Ramstein group, in part to guard against any cut in US support if Donald Trump returns to the White House, diplomats said.
Stoltenberg has also proposed a fund of 100 billion euros (about $108 billion) to support Ukraine’s military over five years, according to diplomats.
It is not clear whether that figure will be accepted by NATO, which takes decisions by consensus.
Latvian Foreign Minister Krisjanis Karins said there had generally been a “positive attitude” toward the proposal, but that details would now need to be worked out ahead of a leaders’ summit in Washington in July.
On Thursday, the ministers will also meet with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. Kuleba said he would press them to provide more Patriot air defense systems to protect against frequent Russian ballistic missile attacks.
“Partners did provide us with their different (air defense) systems, we appreciate that, but it’s just simply insufficient, given the scale of the war,” Kuleba said.
NATO countries could spare more Patriots if they had the political will to do so, he said.
![]()
Ministers to mark 75 years of NATO, discuss more support for Ukraine
Short Url
https://arab.news/4h5qk
Ministers to mark 75 years of NATO, discuss more support for Ukraine
- NATO began with 12 members from North America and Europe
- At its heart is the concept of collective defense
51 hurt in Japan quake as warning persists
- Japan authorities warned an even bigger tremor was possible in coming days
- The agency put the chance at around one in 100 for the next seven days
TOKYO: The number of people injured in a 7.5-magnitude earthquake in Japan rose to 51 on Wednesday, authorities said, after warning an even bigger tremor was possible in coming days.
The quake late Monday off the coast of the northern region of Aomori shook buildings, tore apart roads, smashed windows and triggered tsunami waves up to 70 centimeters (28 inches) high.
The country’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency said on Wednesday the injury toll was 51, rising from 30 initially reported by the prime minister a day earlier.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) had published a rare special advisory early on Tuesday, warning that another quake of similar or greater size was possible for another week.
“Due to the occurrence of this earthquake, it is believed that the relative likelihood of a new large-scale earthquake has increased compared to normal times” in the area, the JMA said the second time it has issued such a warning.
“If a large-scale earthquake occurs in the future, there is a possibility of a massive tsunami reaching the area or experiencing strong shaking,” it said.
The agency put the chance at around one in 100 for the next seven days, local media reported.
The advisory covered the Sanriku area on the northeastern tip of Japan’s main island of Honshu and the northern island of Hokkaido, facing the Pacific.
In August 2024, the JMA issued its first special advisory, for the southern half of Japan’s Pacific coast warning of a possible “megaquake” along the Nankai Trough.
The 800-kilometer undersea trench is where the Philippine Sea oceanic tectonic plate is “subducting” — or slowly slipping — underneath the continental plate that Japan sits atop.
The government has said that a quake in the Nankai Trough and subsequent tsunami could kill as many as 298,000 people and cause up to $2 trillion in damages.
The JMA lifted last year’s advisory after a week but it led to panic-buying of staples like rice and prompted holidaymakers to cancel hotel reservations.
Geologists Kyle Bradley and Judith A. Hubbard said this week that there was no way to tell whether a strong earthquake will be followed by a similarly strong, or even stronger, one.
“Instead, we must rely on historical statistics, which tell us that very few large earthquakes are soon followed by even larger events,” they said in their Earthquake Insights newsletter.
“It does happen, just not very often.”
The quake late Monday off the coast of the northern region of Aomori shook buildings, tore apart roads, smashed windows and triggered tsunami waves up to 70 centimeters (28 inches) high.
The country’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency said on Wednesday the injury toll was 51, rising from 30 initially reported by the prime minister a day earlier.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) had published a rare special advisory early on Tuesday, warning that another quake of similar or greater size was possible for another week.
“Due to the occurrence of this earthquake, it is believed that the relative likelihood of a new large-scale earthquake has increased compared to normal times” in the area, the JMA said the second time it has issued such a warning.
“If a large-scale earthquake occurs in the future, there is a possibility of a massive tsunami reaching the area or experiencing strong shaking,” it said.
The agency put the chance at around one in 100 for the next seven days, local media reported.
The advisory covered the Sanriku area on the northeastern tip of Japan’s main island of Honshu and the northern island of Hokkaido, facing the Pacific.
In August 2024, the JMA issued its first special advisory, for the southern half of Japan’s Pacific coast warning of a possible “megaquake” along the Nankai Trough.
The 800-kilometer undersea trench is where the Philippine Sea oceanic tectonic plate is “subducting” — or slowly slipping — underneath the continental plate that Japan sits atop.
The government has said that a quake in the Nankai Trough and subsequent tsunami could kill as many as 298,000 people and cause up to $2 trillion in damages.
The JMA lifted last year’s advisory after a week but it led to panic-buying of staples like rice and prompted holidaymakers to cancel hotel reservations.
Geologists Kyle Bradley and Judith A. Hubbard said this week that there was no way to tell whether a strong earthquake will be followed by a similarly strong, or even stronger, one.
“Instead, we must rely on historical statistics, which tell us that very few large earthquakes are soon followed by even larger events,” they said in their Earthquake Insights newsletter.
“It does happen, just not very often.”
Latest updates
© 2025 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.