Posted on 08/21/2014 3:16:54 AM PDT by Olog-hai
German chancellor Angela Merkel has said NATO will defend Baltic states if need be, but will not build permanent military bases in the region.
She spoke on Monday (18 August) on a visit to Riga in which she also laid a wreath at the Freedom Monument, a memorial to the Latvian War of Independence against Russia in 1918.
“I want to stress that … Article V of the NATO contract—the duty to provide mutual support—is not something which just exists on paper, but is also something which must be filled with life”, she told press after meeting Latvian prime minister Laimdota Straujuma.
She noted that German jets will start NATO air policing operations in Latvia on 20 August, and that NATO is to build up a rapid reaction force to be used if Russia tries to destabilize its Baltic neighbors on the Ukraine model. …
(Excerpt) Read more at euobserver.com ...
Some asshole fistbumping his golfing buddies on the 16th hole on Martha's Vineyard.
Can’t remember a European leader speaking so authoritatively for NATO without the US being mentioned.
Germany and the EU have been running NATO generally since the beginning of the Bosnia debacle.
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