The North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) has no plans to deploy weapons in space. This was announced on Wednesday, October 20, by the Secretary General of the organization Jens Stoltenberg.
"NATO is investing, adapting and modernizing its capabilities to respond and defend against any threat, including modern missile systems. We are doing this in different directions, we are also moving in the space direction, space is important for our communications, for our ability to detect missile launches <...> In NATO we have no plans to deploy weapons in space, I cannot speak for all allies, but NATO has no such plans," Stoltenberg said at a press conference before the meeting of the North Atlantic Council at the level of defense ministers, which will be held on October 21 and 22 in Brussels.
In addition, the Secretary General of the alliance said that NATO defense ministers will assess the capabilities of Russian missile and nuclear capabilities, including hypersonic missiles. Stoltenberg also pointed out that NATO supports the creation of arms control mechanisms with the participation of the United States, Russia and China.
On October 19, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on the alliance to take steps to improve relations with Russia. He noted that even information exchanges with NATO are no longer there, and all contacts between the military have also been interrupted.
On October 18, Lavrov announced the suspension of the activities of the NATO military mission in Moscow from November 1 in response to the decision of the North Atlantic Alliance to revoke the accreditation of eight employees of the Russian permanent mission to the organization. The activities of the NATO Information Bureau in Moscow will also cease.
On October 6, NATO decided to revoke the accreditation of eight employees of the Russian mission to the organization. Now 10 accreditations are available to Russian diplomats at the alliance.
Stoltenberg said that the decision to revoke accreditation is not related to specific events. According to him, the alliance has been observing an increase in "Russian malicious activity" for some time.
