Desperation Over Ukraine in Meetings of NATO Foreign Ministers, NATO-Ukraine Council and Indo-Pacific Partners
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) marked its 75th anniversary on April 4. The proceedings in Brussels included a meeting of foreign ministers from the 32 NATO member states on April 3, followed by a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council and a meeting of the North Atlantic Council with the NATO "Indo-Pacific Partners" on April 4. The quagmire of the U.S./NATO Ukraine proxy war against Russia was the major preoccupation of the meetings.
In remarks to the press following the meetings, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg outlined various arms being sent by NATO members to Ukraine, saying, "[T]his includes nearly 600 million euros from Germany for the Czech-led artillery initiative; as well as 10,000 drones from the United Kingdom; more missiles and armoured vehicles from France; and just yesterday, a new package of aid from [new member] Finland worth 188 million euros."
Despite NATO's ongoing failure in Ukraine, Stoltenberg called on NATO countries to continue down the same path, saying, "[W]e need to do even more, and we need to put our support on an even firmer and more enduring basis." The Ukrainian army's shortage of ammunition at this time, especially artillery shells, is well known, and Stoltenberg urged that members provide ammunition in a timely manner so that the "capable" Ukrainian army can do its job. This is not to mention the shortage of trained troops as more Ukrainians resist military service. The request was also made notwithstanding the fact that ammunition production capacity of NATO countries cannot meet Ukraine's needs, and that many of the same countries are also supplying money and arms to Israel to carry out its genocidal crimes in Gaza.
A NATO press release issued after the ministerial meeting stated, "Allies have now agreed to move forward with planning for a greater NATO role in coordinating necessary security assistance and training for Ukraine." It did not give further details.
Stoltenberg also proposed a $108 billion five-year military aid package to secure arms for Ukraine during the meetings. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who was in Brussels for the meetings, was underwhelmed. He pointed out that NATO has already had difficulties raising much smaller amounts. "In other words, in the current funding model, this initiative has zero chances. Because they can't collect 500 million, and here they would have to collect 20 billion in the current model," Kuleba was quoted as saying. But if all the bloc's members were obliged to contribute, he added, the plan could "exist and has a chance of being implemented."
In the NATO-Ukraine Council meeting, Stoltenberg stuck to the line of the U.S./NATO arbitrary dictate referred to as the rules-based order, the aim of which is to undermine the rule of international law and the right to be of all nations and peoples. He said, "We discussed the global implications of Russia's war against Ukraine, including the support for Russia from China, north Korea and Iran. As authoritarian powers increasingly align, NATO and its partners must stand united to defend a global order governed by law, not by force."
NATO is an aggressive alliance whose expansion is a growing threat to world peace. Long before the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine, Russia called on NATO to provide it with security guarantees and to stop its expansion. Stoltenberg turned this reality on its head, continuing to spread the disinformation that it is Russia that must be stopped in Ukraine, and that if it is not other NATO allies will be attacked. "[T]here is a real risk that Russia will capture even more territory and that we will be in an even more dangerous position. And the thing is that the only way to reach a just and lasting peace in Ukraine is to have a strong Ukrainian armed forces, because that's the only way to convince President Putin that he will not win on the battlefield."
As concerns how to have a strong Ukrainian armed forces when it is losing an existential battle of attrition, that Stoltenberg did not address. Ukraine recently passed new conscription measures that lowered the draft age from 27 to 25, while a process for demobilization after 36 months of deployment was scrapped. Various analysts have said this will not provide the estimated 500,000 more troops that the Ukrainian armed forces say they require.
The NATO Secretary General also explained the presence of NATO's "Indo-Pacific Partners" -- Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and the Republic of Korea, as well as the European Union -- based on fearmongering about Russia and linking that to China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Iran. "The war in Ukraine demonstrates that very clearly. Because we see how China is propping up the Russian war economy, delivering dual-capable equipment which is also used in the Russian military industry. In return, Moscow is mortgaging its future to Beijing. And then we see how Iran and north Korea are delivering ammunition, missiles, drones to Russia. And then in return, Russia is delivering technology for missile and nuclear programs of these countries," he said. The U.S. and NATO of course have no qualms about training and arming neo-Nazis in Ukraine or using reactionaries of a similar ilk against the peoples anywhere else. What his words reveal is that the economic measures from the NATO countries meant to isolate Russia, is another front on which NATO is being defeated.
One reason for expanding NATO and involving its "Indo-Pacific Partners" is to get more funding and weapons outside NATO members. On April 16, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel urged Japan to step up war production "to enhance our collective security" amid conflict in Ukraine, Gaza and elsewhere. The United States alone can no longer supply all democracies. Japan has drastically eased arms export rules, allowing it to send Japanese-made PAC-3 missiles to the U.S. to help replace those the U.S. has sent to Ukraine.
Another matter discussed at the NATO meetings that Stoltenberg spoke about was the establishment of a group of experts to advise NATO on how to further penetrate its "southern neighbourhood" -- meaning from North Africa to the Middle East. He noted that NATO had close relations with Jordan, Tunisia and Mauritania and also a presence in Iraq. Stoltenberg stated that the "Alliance" is seeking ways and opportunities to extend NATO influence in the region and that the upcoming NATO Summit in Washington, DC in July would concretize these plans. Such a development is dead in the water and will only come to pass through coercion or betrayal by servile governments. It will be greeted with all the contempt it merits by the peoples of all those regions, who today still suffer the consequences of prior colonization and foreign interference.
This article was published in
Volume 54 Number 3 - April 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/M5400312.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca