Lloyd Austin, the United States Secretary of State, arrived in Brussels, Belgium, for diplomatic dialogs with the leadership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and allied defense ministers of the U.S., as more than 100,000 Russian troops surrounded Ukraine from three sides. During the meetings on Wednesday and Thursday, Austin and his counterparts’ leadership will discuss how to prevent Moscow from attacking Ukraine while bolstering defenses on the eastern side of the alliance.
Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense, arrived in Brussels for dialogs with the allied defense minister and NATO leadership, as over 100,000 Russian troops surrounded Ukraine. Austin and his counterparts will discuss discouraging Moscow from attacking Ukraine during talks. pic.twitter.com/co8vB7KPSZ
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Senior director of the Center on Political and Military Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Bradley Bowman, said that this really is a significant moment for NATO, the likes of which they have not really seen likely since NATO was founded in 1949. According to a senior defense official, the primary message from NATO and the U.S. will be to protect the global rules-based order by calling for terrifying efforts to weaken the rule of law and defend the territorial integrity and sovereignty of states.
The official further added that the U.S. and alliance couldn’t allow an enemy to redraw borders by a power without facing major consequences. Afterward, the Secretary of State will then travel to NATO members Lithuania and Poland, Russian neighbors that observed the developments surrounding Ukraine with intensifying concern. On Friday, Austin will meet with Andrzej Duda, the President of Poland, before visiting American troops.
The United States Will Send 9000 Troops to Poland
The U.S. will soon have around nine thousand troops in Poland after American President Joe Biden previously ordered approximately five thousand additional military troops to deploy there for bolstering security after the recent moves of Moscow. On Tuesday, Biden said Moscow has one hundred fifty thousand soldiers surrounding Ukraine, including in the unlawfully occupied Crimea region to the south, Belarus, as well as along the Russian border with Ukraine to the east.
Source: Web
Ukrainian foreign ministry protested against the Russian ships’ exercises near the Black Sea. Moreover, the defense ministry of Russia announced that some military units would come back to their bases. At the same time, Russian legislators approved proposals Tuesday calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin to officially recognize the separatist-controlled zones of eastern Ukraine as independent states in a move that might justify an attack in a region it no longer recognizes as the territory of Ukraine.
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