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For press inquiries, please contact us by email at [email protected].
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Chris Schaefer, Press Officer, at +1 202 642 7727 or [email protected]
Angelina Sutalo, Senior Press Officer, at +32 486 514 479 or [email protected].
For press inquiries, please contact us by email at [email protected].
Or contact the press officers directly:
Chris Schaefer, Press Officer, at +1 202 642 7727 or [email protected]
Angelina Sutalo, Senior Press Officer, at +32 486 514 479 or [email protected].
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“ It's really a lot of backroom diplomacy across the Atlantic. Everything from paperclips to nuclear strategy is done by consensus, so this is part of that process.”
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November 29, 2023
“ How will you deter Russia from attacking Ukraine once Ukraine is inside the alliance? Does it mean NATO will be sending boots on the ground? Does it mean that we need to think about a multinational brigade for Ukraine similar to what is now in place in the Baltics?”
“ The Baltic Sea will practically become a NATO lake and then Kaliningrad will be the isolated territory.”
Translated from
Spanish
“ The point reached is not very surprising. Because it has been known for a long time that the F-16 issue and the issue of Sweden's NATO membership are related to each other. Even though both Ankara and Washington officially denied this, we knew that this was so. It is just a matter of who will take the first step due to the problem of mutual distrust. There was a problem.”
“ Along with Fico, the new Minister of Defense Robert Kalinak was one of the most virulent critics of the military cooperation agreement with the United States. It is difficult to imagine how he can represent continuity and how he can work towards a constructive role for Slovakia within NATO.”
Translated from
French
“ Geopolitical conflicts are distracting from the trade, climate and technology agenda that the leaders must deal with. Given what's going on in the world and also given the EU's ambitions to play a larger geopolitical role — that's especially important to Commission President von der Leyen, it's not surprising that geopolitics will be at the top. ”
“ There is also an effort to give Germany the diplomatic "cover" it needs to make uncomfortable policy decisions. Most recently, Biden publicly complimented Chancellor Olaf Scholz for his "steadfast commitment" to Ukraine and credited Germany for having "stepped up." Behind closed doors, however, the debate over the recent issue of battle tank deliveries took on a different tone. ”
“ So when Ukraine applied for NATO membership a few months after the outbreak of war, he reacted cautiously. "Ukraine's accession would be perceived by Russia as a confrontation," he told Le Monde newspaper in December. "Macron has long been convinced that you have to shape European security with Russia and not against Russia," says Gesine Weber. She is a France expert at the Paris office of the German Marshall Fund. "France therefore rejected Ukrainian accession for a long time because they feared it could be perceived as a threat by Moscow." (...) This has led to a huge outcry among France's allies and shown Macron that he is not getting any closer to his goal of a sovereign Europe by telling the press his uncoordinated, abstract ideas," said France expert Weber. "He realized that he can show leadership at the same time and get closer to his goal of a sovereign Europe by speaking out in favor of Ukraine joining NATO." (…) "Giving Ukraine security guarantees outside of NATO in the long term would also be damn expensive for France," Weber says. At the same time, Macron's confidence in NATO as a guarantor of security has grown. While he declared it "brain dead" in 2017, he said in May that Article Five is having its full effect. "It keeps Russia in check," Macron said. Letting Kiev share in it is thus the more favorable alternative for Paris.”
Translated from
German