Russia has promised a military response – Should NATO be worried? | DW News

Russia has promised a military response – Should NATO be worried? | DW News

on its 75th Anniversary Summit NATO wanted to portray one thing above all unity and the plan largely worked without much wrangling over semantics all 32 members agreed on their final communic way before the end of the meeting but the harmony might not last the possibility of a second term for Donald Trump as US president an outspoken critic of the alliance and its support for Ukraine as many members fearing the worst unsure of what NATO’s future will look like member states declared that kei’s future was indeed among them someday somehow but despite this promise and wide reaching pledges of Aid Ukraine’s vmir zalinski is likely to be leaving Washington disappointed restrictions on the use of longrange weapons on Military Targets in Russia remain in place he had called their lifting a GameChanger here he is speaking earlier on Thursday we of course if you if we want to win if we want to Prevail if we want to save our country and to defend it we need to lift all the limitations I spoke about it with partners with UK leader with United States president with secretary all of that and the United States will begin stationing long range missiles in Germany from 2026 Washington and Berlin say the deployment CS their commitment to Nato and to European Defense the agreement includes Tomahawk sm6 and Hypersonic missiles the weapons are nuclear capable and have a range of more than 2,000 kilometers they were banned under a treaty with Russia until the US withdrew from that treaty five years ago German Chancellor Olaf Schulz welcomed the decision that’s I think is also important result of this meeting together with the decision to organize coordination in Vis sparten in Germany which I think is really a big step forward altogether I think it is the right time for right decisions I will add another aspect which is important for me the United States decided to deploy the Precision strike capabilities in Germany which I I think is a very good decision and it fits into all the decisions we already took our Brussels bureau chief Alexandra fenam joins us from the NATO Summit in Washington Alexandra Schultz mentioned the city of vbot there that’s where NATO will set up a new Command Center is this a sign of Europe taking on more responsibility within the alliance yes I think that it’s definitely uh a sign that the Europeans are willing and ready to take on more responsibility with the creation of this new NATO command in visb and also the fact that NATO as an alliance is ready to uh take on a leading role in coordinating military assistance to Ukraine and the training of the Ukrainian soldiers is also very significant and according to Yan stoltenberg the NATO Secretary General it is going to put uh military assistance to Ukraine on a firm footing and all of that is of course part of NATO’s plan to Trump proof the alliance and its Aid to Ukraine uh because many in the alliance uh fear that Donald Trump should he be elected again could reduce America’s security role in Europe and maybe even put an end to all military assistance to Ukraine so they are trying to get uh prepared for that but experts that I’ve been speaking with told me that uh Europe still is not able to replace the US and their help for Ukraine so um we will see how successful all those efforts will be now Alexandra that deployment of long-range missiles in Germany and what is that going to look like and how significant will it be for NATO’s security architecture here in Europe well Nicole I think that this is very significant for Europe but also of course in particular for Germany uh because we are talking here about long range missile capabilities including as you mentioned before a Tomahawk missile that can go over 2,000 kilometers uh a Hypersonic missile and other modern weapons that will be deployed temporarily in Germany in 2026 which is of course meant as a deterrent against any potential threats uh also of course Russia and we have seen that uh they have already reacted saying that this decision is a link in a chain of a course of escalation uh but for Germany this is a guarantee uh and a deterrent and of course that also is showing uh that the current uh Administration is committed to Nato and to protecting European territory the current Administration but come November could well see a change in the White House is this something that could be undone by Donald Trump in his possible second term well if Donald Trump is elected uh then of course as a commander-in chief he will make his own decision and uh that is something that is not being discussed here openly but of course uh behind the scenes allies are trying uh to prepare their contingency plans and there are discussions going on what it uh uh could mean for uh the alliance uh if uh Donald Trump uh uh gets elected again Ukraine gets money at least 40 billion EUR and weapons of course was everyone gathered in Washington in favor of this newest package well this package was approved long before before uh the summit started but it’s of course not an easy decision for allies many of them have to deal with budgetary restraints especially in Europe and there is one member states that member state that opted out of all military assistance also a financial assistance uh for Ukraine it is Hungary so uh uh even though uh the other allies were able to uh move forward without then uh it is showing you that not all of them are on the same page that’s Alexandra fenan in Washington DC thank you so much the Kremlin has reacted angrily to the announcement Deputy foreign minister Sergey riabov said it was clearly directed against Russia and vowed quote without nerves without emotions we will develop a military response and I can now welcome Christine Bina who’s at the NATO Summit in Washington she’s the managing director of geost strategy North at the German Marshall fund she works on us Nordic Baltic and Arctic security and defense issues glad you could join us today Christine now how significant is this announcement that the US will station long- range missiles in Germany starting in 2026 this is a really important step forward for having a credible deterrent against Russian’s aggression when you look at what the summit declaration has announced the first big block of text is all about having a real deterrent can NATO do what it said it’s going to do two years ago at the Madrid Summit there was a movement of political will and a promise to defend every inch last year in vus there were plans put in place uh about how to get the capabilities organized and resourced so that NATO can do what it said it could do and now we’re seeing that we’re seeing the ability of NATO to come together to defend its territory and to present a strong enough front that there isn’t a question in any adversaries mind about whether the us and whether Germany whether other allies are serious about defending their territory and so deterrence is a matter of strength and about whether others can call the bluff political will yes but if you push is there something scary that you are going to hit and so this is an essential step for European security an essential step that hasn’t gone down well in Moscow the Russians have promised a military response should NATO be worried this is a NATO decision this is a movement of uh of of resources that are within the alliance this is tremendously far from Marsh’s borders meanwhile Russia is attacking and and shooting cruise missiles at Ukraine for example the one on Monday uh that hit the children’s hospital and other Russian missiles have fallen in NATO territory in Poland we are not talking about NATO shooting anything Simply Having something in place to be able to defend itself if Russia chose to be aggressive against NATO territory that is a different condition Russia should not try to threaten NATO about what can what NATO can do on NATO territory uh Russia is the one that is actually hitting Naro territory with its missiles and organizing massive sabotage attacks across the alliance now this is a true threat Russia has to show this Bluster it has to be um for its own audiences very vocal about any changes I don’t think we should be especially concerned about reactions will they exercise um different question it’s not going to result in an attack on the alliance the US looking at the pledges made to Ukraine has promised a lot but it seems unwilling to loosen the restrictions on how the ukrainians can use the weapons suppli to them by Washington how big of a blow is that for president zalinski this is of course a disappointment to president zi the question is how does he make the attack stop it’s important to have the air defense systems that Biden announced on Tuesday uh this will knock something out of the sky but it’s really important also for Ukraine to be able to stop uh the attack where it starts and it’s clear that that mov is not going to happen right now we’ve seen an iterative approach by Washington uh and by the whole Alliance to providing Aid and many things that were off the table two years ago are now firmly everyday practice this comes to whether or not there are tanks f-16s we have heard repeatedly at the summit today are going going to be flying in Ukraine later this Summer that also was a red line providing ATT attacks these longer range weapons also was off the table until it wasn’t striking within Russia was off the table until it wasn’t and so again we’re going to see a process of iterative development and it’s very hard to anti anticipate when uh the dam will break and when there’s going to be again a new decision but there is a constant pressure to move forward but zalinsky and uh as we saw a clip two of yach have they have been very grateful for the support that NATO has given at this Summit and that is a remarkable contrast to last year where anger and disappointment was Paramount and here gratitude for the serious support that NATO allies have given is much more the tone and the message that Ukrainian um I want to talk about the communic I’m sure you’ve seen it it it kind of seems like the language has changed bit on Ukraine we’re no longer talking about Victory but more of success or of Ukraine prevailing what do you read into that uh language changes the most important word that was debated in advance of this Summit declaration uh was the word of irreversible does Ukraine have an irreversible path to joining the alliance that word is in the final communic and I think many people are very happy about that there are some caveats uh in terms of Democratic and security progress uh there is a need for Ukraine to keep making that progress to be accountable to the alliance this is something we have seen thus far and of course that is not a relationship that is going to be eased Ukraine is under tremendous pressure to show that it is up for it uh that will continue uh but the language about Victory it’s interesting Jake Sullivan the National Security adviser spoke here today and he very much spoke about success for Ukraine and failure for Russia this is a shift in words I don’t think we quite know what this means how is Success different from Victory how is failure different from loss are the words Victory and loss too cataclysmic in a way um is failure and success more palatable and can we define success in a more flexible way in some ways uh potentially this can help Ukraine finish and complete its path towards Euro Atlantic integration to getting into the European Union to receiving a letter of invitation for NATO but again there’s a concern that all of this feels a little squishy it is imprecise how does Ukraine remain in the strongest possible position and how does Russia learn that its invasion of Ukraine was a catastrophic failure and one that it should not attempt anywhere else the lack of repetition is going to be very important uh but again there are there is word play and I think what is important is to show actual progress on the front lines and political change in the longer term to make sure that the NATO Club does in fact eventually include Ukraine and that the stakes of attacking Ukraine in the future would be so catastrophic that ukrainians would feel safe sending their children for cancer treatment in a hospital not worrying that a missile is going to hit the while air there that was Christine Bina of the German Marshall fund thank you so much for all those insights thank you

The United States will begin stationing long-range missiles in Germany from 2026. Washington and Berlin say the deployment cements their commitment to NATO and European defense. The agreement includes Tomahawk, SM-6, and hypersonic missiles.

The weapons are nuclear-capable and have a range of more than two thousand kilometers. They were banned under a treaty with Russia until the US withdrew from that treaty five years ago.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz welcomed the decision.

Chapters
00:00 Europe takes on more responsibility in NATO
02:36 Alexandra von Nahmen, DW Brussels Bureau Chief
07:27 Kristine Berzina, Managing Director of Geostrategy North at the German Marshal Fund

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