No Going Back to Business as Usual for NATO and Russia
The NATO−Russia Council (NRC) meeting last week provided an important bellwether in the run up to NATO’s Warsaw summit in early July. Dialogue is important, but the disagreements are deep and Russia’s continuing military transformation will pose increasing challenges to the Euro-Atlantic structure.
The NRC meeting, the body’s first in two years and months in preparation, focused on three main questions – Ukraine and Minsk II, transparency and risk, and Afghanistan. Officials suggested that it was a ‘frank, serious and good meeting’ during which both sides could ‘exchange views, listen to each other and contribute to talking’.
But it is no surprise that after the meeting both sides emphasised their disagreements, particularly on the first two themes, and over who was to blame for the deterioration in Euro-Atlantic security and what to do about it.… Seguir leyendo »