One for All and All for One ... Or All for Naught
"[Moscow] can choose the path of diplomacy that can lead to peace and security, or the path that will lead only to conflict, severe consequences and international condemnation."U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken
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Berlin denied reports circulating that its new Chancellor Olaf Scholz had chosen to turn down an invitation for a face-to-face meeting with President Biden for the purpose of discussing Ukraine. Yet another symptom of divisions expanding within NATO over the best way to respond to the assumed threat of an impending Russian invasion of its neighbour. A short-notice invitation from the White House for the German chancellor to fly to Washington was reported by Der Spiegel.
Since both the White House and the Chancellor's office deny the claim, curious onlookers and troubled partners in NATO must take that at face value even while the report threatens Western unity is being undermined in the wake of diplomats from Russia and the United States having failed to come to any semblance of an agreement reflecting a breakthrough on emergency talks in Geneva.
Russia would face a "swift, severe" response should it invade Ukraine, admonished U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Not to be outdone, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke of Moscow awaiting a written response to its security guarantee demands. Both remain open to further dialogue in the hope that mutual security concerns could be addressed to the satisfaction of each.
In view of the reality that each has made demands the other cannot accept, appears an irrelevancy to the cycle of consultations. Russia insists unreservedly that all foreign NATO forces must leave Romania and Bulgaria, both of which have been members of the alliance since 2014. Romania's contiguous border with Ukraine makes the Kremlin edgy. Both Romania and Bulgaria have coastlines on the Black Sea, critical to the deterrence of a Russian operation in south Ukraine.
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| Biden and Putin hold high-stakes phone call over Ukraine still from video |
Ukraine has the assurance that the United States, the United Kingdom and most of Europe threaten severe economic sanctions. Military action in the face of an attack? Hmmn, not quite. Ukraine's requests to Germany for military assistance is a non-starter. And Germany is not particularly on the same page as the U.S., U.K. and Ukraine when it comes to cancelling its Nord Stream 2 pipeline to pump gas from Russia, should war erupt.
Leaving Ukraine to accuse Germany of blocking arms supplies through NATO on an earlier occasion. It doesn't appear to have helped that CIA director William Burns arrived in Berlin to present evidence to Chancellor Scholz of a Russian military buildup. Nor Blinken informing Scholz to back sanctions should he continue to block arms deliveries to Ukraine.
As for France, President Emmanuel Macron was accused of blindsiding his allies in sabotaging efforts in containment when he informed the European parliament the EU should launch its own security dialogue with Russia. Paris and Berlin, according to Le Monde, are "perplexed" by the "alarmist" tone emanating from Washington and London respecting Russian troop deployments.
So to the rescue for Ukraine through the defence ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania assuring Ukraine they will provide it in its time of need with U.S.-made anti-armour and anti-aircraft missiles, having secured the go-ahead from the U.S.. "Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and their allies are working together expeditiously to hand over the security assistance to Ukraine", they communicated in a joint statement.
With Estonia to provide Javelin anti-armour missiles and Latvia and Lithuania to send Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to augment Britain's airlifting of anti-tank weapons to Ukraine earlier in the week in response to Vladimir Putin's threat of "military-technical" measures to be taken should the West not deliver on its demands, inclusive of Ukraine never permitted to join NATO.
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Labels: Baltic States, Germany, Invasion, Military Equipment, NATO, Russia, Ukraine, United States
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, January 23, 2022
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