World News Stoltenberg says US-led organisation ready to negotiate with Russia, doesn’t want war
We have to remember that Ukraine is a very close partner. We provide support to Ukraine, but Ukraine is not covered by NATO’s collective defense clause because Ukraine is not a NATO member. They are a partner.
The bloc is ready to engage with Russia on outstanding security issues, but Moscow should not expect any one-sided concessions, Stoltenberg warned. He also expressed confidence that the US won’t make any concessions to Russia at the expense of its European allies.“We are ready to engage in arms control with Russia, conventional and nuclear, but that has to be reciprocal,” Stoltenberg stated. “That’s a different thing – imposing one-sided restrictions … we can’t end up in a situation where we have second-class NATO members where NATO as an alliance is not allowed to protect them.”Top diplomats from NATO states got together for an online summit ahead of the upcoming US-Russia talks, as well as the first meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in years. The US-Russia talks, set to be led by high-level officials of the two nations, are scheduled to begin in Geneva on January 10. A NATO-Russia Council meeting, set to be the first since 2019, is expected to take place on January 12.