Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has rejected speculation about the West terminating the NATO-Russia Founding Act. “As NATO states, we have stood by the NATO-Russia Founding Act every minute in the past,” said the Green politician on Thursday at a joint appearance with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Berlin. Baerbock and Stoltenberg underlined that it is Russia that has been violating the agreement since the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014.
The day before, Stoltenberg had submitted explosive proposals to the alliance for the permanent strengthening of the eastern flank. From a Russian perspective, these plans may not be compatible with the NATO-Russia Founding Act. In it, NATO also committed itself to refraining from permanently stationing “substantial combat troops” in the eastern alliance area.
Baerbock now said that the stationing of further NATO troops on the eastern flank was done “fully in accordance with the NATO-Russia Founding Act, which Russia unilaterally breached”. The commitments contained in the agreement are linked to a secure environment.
Russia had “violated this NATO-Russia Founding Act and thus peace in Europe in the most brutal way,” said the German Foreign Minister.
Stoltenberg emphasized that the Founding Act clearly states that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of every European state must be accepted within internationally recognized borders. NATO must now ensure that there is no room in Moscow for misunderstandings or miscalculations about its defense capabilities. The presence in the eastern part of the alliance is also being strengthened in order to prevent the war in Ukraine from escalating into a war between NATO and Russia.