NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg says 'won't agree' to keep military within pre-1997 borders

Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), has stated that the military alliance would not retreat its allied troops from member states that joined the bloc since 1997. The pulling back of troops would indicate having a separate group of NATO of countries, especially the European nations, deprived of protection by the military alliance, the secretary-general explained while speaking at an interview with CBC News. However, the US-led military alliance is ready to discuss arms reduction with Russia, he added.

"Of course, we cannot agree that we should have no NATO troops in all countries that have joined NATO since 1997. That is actually half of our members," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said during the interview with CBS.

"We will never introduce that but we are ready to engage in balanced, verifiable measures to reduce arms, conventional nuclear missiles, and that kind of things. That would be good for Russia and good for NATO," Stoltenberg said.

The top military General's assertions came amid expanding rift between the US and Russia over troop deployment in the ex-Soviet nations. It is pertinent to mention that both Washington and Moscow have continued to engage in discussions since the latter deployed nearly 1,00,000 soldiers in Ukraine's Donbas region indicating potential invasion of Kyiv, as per experts. Although Moscow refuted claims of an attack on the sovereignty of Ukraine, it has since then engaged in hostile rhetoric, with Russian President Vladimir Putin saying Russia will not "sit idly" against "aggressive western politics."

For note, NATO is an intergovernmental military alliance of 27 member states, including France, Norway, UK, Canada, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium and more. The bloc is led by the US. 

Moscow demands security guarantees in NATO-Russia meet

It is pertinent to mention that last Monday (Jan 10), Russia and the US in Geneva held a meeting on strategic stability. The bilateral talks were followed by a NATO-Russia meeting in Brussels on Wednesday. On Thursday, Russia and NATO met for the OSCE talks in Vienna.

Moscow, at the Russia-NATO meet, aimed to address their security concerns with NATO troop deployment in ex-Soviet nations as proposed in December. The demands, published in December also included a guarantee of the military alliance to stop admitting new members and withdraw forces from its eastern Allies, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg had said.

Nevertheless, the Allies made it clear that NATO will uphold it's Open Door Policy, allowing each nation to choose its own security arrangements. "NATO allies ready to meet again with Russia to discuss in greater detail, to put concrete proposals on the table and to seek constructive outcomes," Stoltenberg had said after the meeting, NATO said in a statement. The military alliance also agreed to increase the transparency of their military exercises in order to "prevent dangerous military incidents and reduce space and cyber threats."

(Image: AP)