NATO defense ministers, at a meeting next week, will begin reviewing the alliance’s long-standing policy on relations with Russia, Politico reports, citing a senior US official.
The bloc’s countries are trying to “outline various elements of the strategy” and also intend to discuss the fate of the Russia-NATO Founding Act, the official said. The document, signed in May 1997 in Paris, states that the parties do not consider themselves opponents. The law declares the bases of relations between the country and the alliance and defines a mechanism for mutual consultation and cooperation.
“The time has come to develop a new strategy from the point of view of specific (allied) positions,” – said the official.
According to him, the Founding Act and the NATO-Russia Council “were created for a different era” and now “something new is needed.”
According to Politico, lower-level discussions have been ongoing for several months, but this will be the first time ministerial discussions will take place, with several rounds of negotiations planned. According to the publication, the allies agreed to prepare a new strategy for the NATO summit to be held in The Hague in June 2025. The US official clarified that there is no draft of a new document yet; There are disagreements among the bloc’s members about “how far NATO should go in forming a new set of rules.”
The publication notes that relations between NATO and Russia reached their lowest point after the outbreak of the military conflict between Moscow and kyiv in 2022. The alliance called Russia “the most significant and direct threat,” while Russian officials have repeatedly cited as a threat NATO’s strengthening on its eastern flank and its possible further expansion, including into Ukraine. In addition, President Vladimir Putin warned that allowing kyiv to fire Western weapons deep into Russia would mean the involvement of NATO, the United States and European countries in the conflict and would require retaliatory measures.
The French president spoke of the need to “rethink” ties with Russia in the future Emmanuel Macronwho called on the countries of Europe and the world to focus on “building a new world order,” since the current one, conceived at the end of the Second World War, is “incomplete and unjust.” The Kremlin stated that Russia, after the end of hostilities in Ukraine, would build relations with Europe “on a new basis,” RBC recalls.
