NATO to Shun Major Eastern Footprint in Nod to Russia

[Purveyor]

Source: Bloomberg

By James G. Neuger and Patrick Donahue Aug 18, 2014 11:56 AM ET

NATO will stop short of basing substantial combat forces in eastern Europe to avoid a complete rupture in relations with Russia, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.

A North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit next month will settle on other ways of protecting the alliance’s eastern flank, including previously floated plans for more war-games, a more robust command structure and warehousing equipment that would be needed in an emergency, Merkel and allied officials said.

Defensive steps triggered by Russia’s pressure on non-NATO member Ukraine “don’t involve a permanent, sustained stationing of fighting troops, but we can strengthen our cooperation very much in other ways,” Merkel told reporters today in Latvia, one of the frontline states pleading for more vigilance against the Kremlin.

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NATO will abide by a commitment made in 1997 -- when a post-Cold War partnership with Russia beckoned -- to refrain from the “permanent stationing of substantial combat forces” in eastern Europe, a senior NATO diplomat told reporters in Brussels today.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-18/nato-to-shun-major-eastern-footprint-in-nod-to-russia.html

[ballyhoo]

1. Petro Poroshenko strikes out. What's his next move?

[cosmicone]

2. Hahahahahaha n/t

[amandabeech]

3. The foreign ministers of Russia, Ukraine, Britain and Germany

met over the weekend and butted heads. However, they agreed to meet again very soon to do the same. This is probably progress.

Russia may be more cooperative since it appears that the separatists fighting in Ukraine, more or less under Russia's auspices, are now doing well against Ukrainian regular army and "official" militias, right-leaning or otherwise.

Unless Russia hands over a huge amount of materiel to the separatists or enters Ukraine in force, this may be the beginning of the end of hostilities in eastern Ukraine.

Crimea will remain as a thorn, however. But it may end up being Russia's thorn. Crimea's main supplier of many basic goods like food and water has been Ukraine. Now, there is no legitimate trade between them. Russia can only supply Crimea by air, a la the Berlin Air Lift, and by sea. Currently, the wait time at the ferry crossing to Russia in the southeast tip of Crimea is 2 days. I still say that Russia made a bad decision to not expand the smaller ports on its own Black Sea coast to hold most of its Black Sea Fleet, and make more room at Novorosiysk for its larger ships rather than end up worrying constantly about Sevastopol.

[Uncle Joe]

4. Good.

Thanks for the thread, Purveyor.

[pampango]

5. Can some leaders still use NATO as a boogeyman regardless of what it does? n/t

[jakeXT]

6. Send McCain to the Baltic

http://www.usafe.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123407683