NATO allies are divided on the question of whether the alliance should make it a policy to shoot down Russian planes which violate NATO airspace, certain countries such as the United States, Poland and the Baltic countries pointing that future violations should be confronted with force, while others, including Germany, exhort more restraint.
The problem came on Tuesday at an emergency meeting of the North Atlantic Council, which was called by Estonia after three Russian fighter planes raped Estonian airspace last week for 12 minutes.
Representatives of several countries, including Poland and Estonia, wanted the joint declaration after the meeting clearly indicates that any additional violation of Russia, including inhabited planes, would be welcomed by force, according to two NATO officials close to the discussions – something that NATO has the power to do if necessary.
But Germany and certain southern European countries have pushed this language from the declaration, said NATO officials, fearing that it was too climbed.
The best American general for Europe, Alexus Grynkewich, who is the supreme NATO ally commander, Europe, also paused for certain countries of the meeting when he declared that the Russian incursion in Estonia was probably accidental given the inexperience of Russian pilots and insufficient training, CNN reported.
The final statement, approved by the 32 member countries, landed somewhere in the middle.
“NATO and the allies will employ, in accordance with international law, all the military and non -military tools necessary to defend us and dissuade all threats from all directions. We will continue to answer in the manner, calendar and the field of our choice, “he said.
The episode underlines how difficult it will be to obtain a consensus on the issue, said officials, even if Russia has continued to push the limits of its attacks against Ukraine – who have filmed several times in NATO’s territory – and the deployment of its military assets near Europe.
Even President Donald Trump, who tried to give Russia for a long time the benefit of the doubt, weighed on Tuesday, saying “Yes, I do it”, when he was asked if he thought that NATO should shoot down Russian planes that violate his air space.
In the past two weeks only, Russia has launched up to 21 drones in Poland, some of which have been slaughtered by NATO fighter planes; A Russian attack drone flew to Romania; Three Russian planes flew over Estonia without authorization and with their disabled transponders; And a Russian military plane flew over a German navy frigate in the Baltic Sea last weekend, the German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius revealed on Wednesday.
Norway also announced on Monday that Russia had violated its airspace only three times this year-only twice above the sea near Vardø in the extreme northeast of Norway, and once in an uninhabited area in the northeast of the County of Finnmark.
We still do not know if all these incidents were intentional. NATO, American and European officials, are still examining the possibility that the drone included in Poland, for example, the result of a Ukrainian electronic jamming that denounced them, CNN reported.
Another NATO official told CNN that they did not consider Trump’s comments as an US President’s push for NATO to change their policy and have argued that NATO should not do so. “This is his hot take -up of the hour,” said the manager about Trump’s remark. “On our part, we have responded to jurisdiction incursions, in the meantime, it is incompetence. So why do we slaughter them? ”
But for several NATO countries, in particular those of the eastern flank of the alliance closest to Russia, the intention is not what matters – they believe that Moscow has to face consequences for its increasingly reckless and dangerous behavior.
“If another missile or plane enters our space without authorization – deliberately or” mistaken ” – and is killed, and the wreckage falls on NATO territory, do not come here to complain,” the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Radek Sikorski said on Monday during an emergency meeting at the United Nations. “You were notified.”
Czech President Petr Pavel also said on Tuesday that “we have to answer appropriately, in particular by cutting Russian planes. What has happened in recent days in Poland and Estonia, and what has happened in Ukraine for four years now, concerns us all. If we do not respect, sooner or later it will happen to us too. ”
A senior NATO official told CNN that he thought that Russia sounded weak points in NATO defenses and collected information on the path of the Alliance path willing to protect his air space, a concern that the German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, echoed on Tuesday.
“The incursion of Russian drones and war planes deeply in Polish and Estonian airspace and the overview of a German frigate in the Baltic Sea in a few days indicate that Russia literally tests borders, including NATO states, with increasing frequency and intensity,” said Pistorius.
But Pistorius has also strongly rejected being attracted to the “climbing trap” of Russia and urging calm in NATO’s response.
“Frivolous requests to shoot something from the sky” are useless, said Pistorius on Wednesday. “Prudence is not cowardice, but rather responsibility for your own country and peace in Europe.”
Finnish president Alexander Stubb also urged caution, advising allies on Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg “not reacting excessively but being firm enough, because the only thing Russia understands is power.”
Grynkewich, the commander of the US European Command, who is double holly as a supreme NATO ally commander, Europe, told French newspaper on Wednesday than the abandonment of a fighter plane is much risky than removing a drone.
“It is a much easier decision to shoot down an unmanned drone that enters airspace,” he said. “We must take into account factors like: where is it, what is below when we slaughter, what is the risk for the population of engagement and what threatens.”
But to shoot down hunting planes like fighter planes clearly has a higher risk of climbing if there is a commitment that kills someone on each side, “said Grynkewich. “I can say that if there is a threat of good faith of any type of article in the air, inhabited or without pilot, etc., we are ready to take the necessary measures to defend our populations.”
Grynkewich has recognized variable approaches within NATO on this issue, telling the world that each nation within the Alliance has different expectations of the moment and the way in which NATO assets should intervene. Some countries like Poland want “a very wide application” of NATO assets to initiate possible threats, he said, but “other nations carry different judgments”.
“We work with them on the parameters [in which] They would like us to commit, and when they would like to take national measures in relation to NATO’s action, “said Grynkewich. It is therefore not the same thing in each nation, but we work in close collaboration with them to make sure that we limit the number of restrictions as much as possible, because it gives us the most tactical. ”
