The aircraft carrier USS Truman will be transferred to NATO Command. Jens Stoltenberg’s comment

On January 13, the Norwegian website The Barents Observer reported that two attack groups of the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales and USS Harry S. Zircon 3M22 anti-ship missile were in the Barents Sea.

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“This is a strong signal of transatlantic unity. NATO will always do what is necessary to protect and defend its allies,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter.

The Cold Response exercise, which begins in March, will be the largest NATO exercise in the Arctic Circle since the 1980s, and will involve about 35,000 people. Soldiers from 29 countries.

The Barents Observer explains that these exercises have been planned for a long time and are not directly related to the escalation of tensions caused by the threat of Russian invasion of Ukraine, but “the conflict in Eastern Europe may extend to the Arctic, because some of the most powerful defense systems are located on the Kola Peninsula. Russia, including Hypersonic missiles.”

During a meeting of NATO diplomatic leaders on January 7, Stoltenberg said that Russia was strengthening its military positions around Ukraine and that the risk of a new conflict was real.

In December, the Russian Foreign Ministry published proposals on the so-called security guaranteedemanded by Moscow from the West. It is a draft “Treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States on Security Guarantees” and a draft agreement between Russia and NATO.

The draft treaty with the United States contains 8 points. Article 4, as evaluated – crucial for Moscow – states: “The United States of America undertakes to exclude any further eastward expansion of NATO and to refuse to accept the states formerly belonging to the USSR for the alliance.”

On Friday in Geneva, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the dangers of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Kremlin’s proposals for NATO. The US State Department had previously declared, and Blinken repeated on Friday, that these Russian proposals were unacceptable.

An agreement to limit the admission of new members to the alliance would be in contravention of Article 10 of NATO’s founding treaty. It states that the organization can accept into its group any European country that applies to it and can contribute to increasing the security of the North Atlantic region and be able to meet the specific conditions of the member states – clarifies the Palestinian Authority.