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NATO says it is ready for direct confrontation with Russia. Photo/REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol
LISBON – Chairman of the Military Committee NATO Admiral Rob Bauer said the alliance was ready for a direct confrontation with Russia . That was conveyed in an interview with Portugal’s RTP channel as Moscow’s war on Ukraine heats up.
Bauer acknowledged that rearmanent was the top priority for the alliance. He also acknowledged that the US-led military organization had lost its monopoly on military initiatives.
Bauer recalls that during the NATO summit in Madrid last year, the alliance decided to create four additional multinational battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
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“This is an important signal to Russia… That we are ready if they decide to go after NATO. This is the red line. If there is a red line, then it is Russia that crossed our border,” he said, which was launched on Sunday (29/1/2023).
Bauer said that NATO countries should adapt civilian industrial production to military needs and expressed support for the idea of ”peacetime economic warfare”.
He added that he believed Russia’s strategic goals went beyond Ukraine, where Moscow wants to claim the territory of the former Soviet Union.
When asked if NATO was concerned about an escalation in the Russo-Ukrainian war, Bauer said that while the initial Russian aggression was an escalation, Ukraine’s desire to reclaim territory that belonged to it was not an escalation.
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“If (Russia) stopped the war today, there would be no escalation,” Bauer said.
On January 19, Bauer said that Russia would remain a threat to NATO even if Moscow’s troops were defeated in Ukraine.
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