NATO’s secretary general rejected that shooting down Russian aircraft is the only way to demonstrate the Atlantic Alliance’s deterrent capacity, but warned Moscow that “everything is ready” to respond to intentional violations.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) “is much stronger than Russia”, said Mark Rutte, at the entrance to a ministerial meeting at NATO headquarters, in Brussels, Belgium.
Asked about the possibility of shooting down ‘drones’ (remotely piloted aircraft) and even combat aircraft – Russia uses, for example, the Sukhoi Su-57, similar to the F-35 – as the only way to dissuade aerial incursions, The NATO Secretary General responded that intercepting drones or planes and escorting them out of Atlantic Alliance airspace is also part of the deterrence capability.
However, Mark Rutte wanted to “tell the Russians that if they try to do so intentionally”, NATO has “everything ready to ensure that it will defend itself”.
Regarding the synergies announced between NATO and the European Union – 23 of the 27 Member States of the European Union belong to the Atlantic political-military bloc, made up of 32 countries -, Mark Rutte said that “there is no duplication” of efforts.
“NATO is good at the hard stuff [armamento e estratégia militar]while the European Union has enormous ‘soft power’ [poder de persuasão e diplomático]. This combination is crucial for Russia not to prevail.”he maintained.
The ministerial meeting this Wednesday, October 15th, will bring together the government officials responsible for the Defense of the 32 NATO member states, the Ukrainian counterpart and also the representative of European Union diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, at the headquarters of the political-military organization, of which Portugal is part and one of the founding countries.
The main topic is the continuity and reinforcement of support for Ukraine, on its way to the fourth year of conflict and after the prospects for a ceasefire created in the summer fell apart.