Politico: NATO is preparing to officially "freeze" relations with Russia
NATO defense ministers are preparing to discuss the alliance's new strategy in relation to Russia, Politico writes. The previous policy is outdated and does not reflect the current freeze in relations, according to NATO. However, some members of the alliance are afraid of sending Moscow an "overly aggressive" signal.
Stuart Lau
Brussels. NATO defense ministers next week will begin rethinking the alliance's long-standing policy in relations with Russia in response to the threat posed by the Kremlin.
Relations between NATO and Russia reached a low level with the beginning of Moscow's special operation in Ukraine in 2022. In response, NATO called Russia “the most significant and direct threat to the security of allies,” while the Kremlin sees the proposed expansion of NATO to the east as an existential threat.
However, despite the change in tone, the alliance still retains the NATO-Russia Founding Act. This document, signed six years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in 1997, proclaims the common goal of “building a stable, peaceful and indivisible Europe.”
The NATO–Russia Council, created after the Cold War for security partnerships and joint projects, has not been convened since 2022. Relations have been steadily deteriorating for many years in a row: in 2008, Russia was accused of attacking Georgia, and in 2014 of illegally annexing Crimea and starting a war in eastern Ukraine.
At this stage, NATO countries are trying to “outline various elements of a strategy towards Russia and start a discussion within the alliance that will lead us to topics such as the future of the NATO–Russia Founding Act,” a senior U.S. government official told reporters on Friday.
“Now it's time to develop a new strategy based on the specific positions of the allies,” the official explained.
Official discussions at a lower level have been going on for several months, but next week's meeting of NATO defense ministers will be the first of several rounds of discussions on this topic at the ministerial level. At the NATO summit in Washington in July, the allies agreed to develop a new strategy for Russia at the next alliance summit, which will be held in The Hague in June 2025.
The American official added: “Now we must have an understanding throughout the alliance that the Founding Act and the NATO–Russia Council were created for a different era. I think the allies are ready to admit that this was a different era in our relations with Russia, and therefore the new approach is quite justified.”
The official explained that there is no draft of the new strategy yet, since the main focus is on collecting opinions in all 32 NATO countries. He also said that the military consequences of this political undertaking are expected to be very modest.
Disagreements have already begun about how far NATO should go in creating a new set of rules for Russia. According to a NATO diplomat, some members of the organization fear that an overly aggressive new strategy could send a “signal" that would destabilize Russia.
In addition, there is the question of Hungary and Slovakia. These two NATO countries are going against the rest of the alliance members and continue to maintain contacts with the Kremlin, seeing strategic expediency and benefits in cooperation with Russia.
