The idea that NATO "woke up" on February 24 with the surprise of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is flatly false, maintains its secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg. The Russian military aggression in Ukraine “is one of the most anticipated military operations in history” and the Alliance, he stresses, has been supporting the country not since that day but since 2014, when the illegal annexation of Crimea took place. Now, the allied countries must prepare to support Ukraine in the long term, Stoltenberg warns in an interview with several European media in which he glosses the courage shown by the army, political leaders and the people of Ukraine.
At what point is the war?
We are facing the most serious security crisis that Europe has experienced since the end of the Second World War. We find ourselves with a total war in a European country, a brutal war with civilian casualties and modern military equipment. President Putin has made a big strategic mistake: he planned to achieve his goals in a week and we have been at war for thirteen weeks now. Russian troops have been expelled from Kyiv and Kharkiv in the north of the country, and Ukrainian troops have responded fiercely to the Russian offensive in Donbass (...), all combined with unprecedented support from NATO.
What is your role in this crisis? To what extent is Russia a threat to the Alliance?
NATO's first task is to help Ukraine. Wars are unpredictable and no one can say how or when this one will end but we must be prepared to maintain our support for the long term. This is increasingly a war of attrition, with casualties on both sides, a huge need for ammunition, fuel and reinforcements. It is not only about bringing new equipment but about keeping the material delivered operational. NATO's other role is to prevent an escalation, because its main responsibility is to protect and defend the almost one billion people who live in their countries. The war we see in Ukraine is horrific and brutal, there are civilian casualties, bombings, devastation and destroyed cities. But if this escalates to an all-out war between NATO and Russia it will cause much more destruction and damage across Europe. Therefore, we have a responsibility to act in a way that does not contribute to or lead to escalation. We are making it clear that NATO supports Ukraine but that it is not part of the war, we only support its right to self-defense, which is included in the UN Charter. (...) Since the Russian invasion we have increased the number of troops in the east of the Alliance to 40,000 troops, backed by significant naval and air forces. The goal is not to provoke war but to prevent it, preserve peace and avoid any confusion or misunderstanding in Moscow about NATO's willingness to protect and defend all allies. Our motto is “one for all and all for one”. If an ally is attacked we all are and the entire Alliance will respond.
Sweden and Finland have applied to join NATO. How serious are Turkish reservations?
My goal remains to have a quick accession process but, as always in NATO, we need all 30 allies to agree. We must sit down to talk, as is being done, and resolve the differences. I am confident that we will succeed. We must also recognize that Turkey is an important country and when an ally says that they have a problem, it must be addressed.
The demand for membership of two traditionally neutral European countries is not the only thing that has changed as a result of the invasion of Ukraine. For Stoltenberg, the war confirms that dealings with authoritarian regimes have consequences for security, which is why he calls on governments to recalibrate their policies if they do not want to discover in a few years that their dependence on Chinese raw materials, technology and infrastructure is so dangerous like the Russian gas addiction.
“I have been a strong supporter of free trade and globalization because it has helped us progress and contributed to global prosperity. But we must understand that our economic decisions have consequences for security and take this into account especially when we make deals with authoritarian regimes, "says the secretary general. “Freedom is more important than free trade. Protecting values is more important than profits. If we must choose between free trade and freedom, let us choose freedom”, he defends.
Stoltenberg will travel to Madrid on Monday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Spain's accession to the military organization and to prepare for the allied summit that will take place at the end of June, in which NATO's strategic concept will be updated, its vision of world. The new document will defend a reinforcement of capacities in the east of the European continent to deal with the threat from Russia, a country that the 2010 document describes as a strategic partner, and will face for the first time the challenges posed by relations with China, a country that the current text does not even mention.
“We are seeing attempts by China to control critical infrastructure, such as 5G networks, of enormous importance to our security. All these issues mean that we must face the consequences of China's rise for our security," says Stoltenberg, who calls on countries to draw lessons from Russia's conduct in its dealings with China. “Now it is obvious that being so dependent on Russian gas is not good. I think the European allies now realize that having so much of their energy coming from Russia makes them vulnerable. That is why we must assess the security consequences of economic decisions, such as excessive reliance on commodities from authoritarian regimes.”
Another key aspect is technology. “If we engage in seemingly civil and peaceful scientific cooperation and share critical technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing with potential adversaries, we are giving them tools to threaten us. The new weapons will be drones with artificial intelligence and facial recognition, dangerous systems that rely on very advanced technologies,” he notes.
