NATO's commitment to supporting Ukraine and defending freedom and democracy marks a new era in collective defense, with a global approach that extends well beyond the defense of member countries' borders.
Editorial
The scope of the exercises 2024 Steadfast Defender of NATO marks an "irrevocable return" of the Alliance to the patterns of the Cold War, the Russian deputy foreign minister told the state news agency RIA yesterday Alexander Grushko.
NATO said Thursday it launched its largest exercise since the Cold War, involving some 90.000 troops, testing how U.S. troops could strengthen European allies in countries bordering Russia and on the alliance's eastern flank if a conflict were to flare up with an opponent considered "almost equal" (clear reference to Russia ed.).
The 2024 Steadfast Defender will involve more than forty thousand troops, between 500 and 700 missions of air combat e more than 50 ships. Furthermore, it will involve the territories of Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. 32 countries will participate, including the Sweden, although its entry into the Atlantic Alliance has yet to be ratified.
RUSSIAN RESENTMENT. "These exercises are another element of the hybrid war unleashed by the West against Russia“Grushko told RIA. “An exercise of this magnitude… marks NATO's definitive and irrevocable return to Cold War patterns, when the military planning process, resources and infrastructure are prepared for confrontation with Russia."
NATO has never mentioned Russia but its main strategic document identifies Russia as the most significant and direct threat to the security of NATO members.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 in what Kiev and its Western allies called an unprovoked imperialist land grab. Moscow, and its diplomatic chief, the Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, have since often accused the collective West of waging a hybrid war against Russia by supporting Ukraine through financial and military aid.
The summit of NATO military leaders
"The NATO countries must be on red alert for war and we are in an age where anything can happen at any time,” the admiral said last Wednesday Robert Bauer, president of the NATO Military Committee, during the summit with the heads of the armed forces of the allied countries.
Baurer: “In order to be fully effective in the future, we need a war transformation of NATO. Even in this case the key will be public-private cooperation".
Bauer has, in fact, said that the allies must "focus on effectiveness" and increase defense readiness with more exercises, partnerships industrialists and troops on maximum alert. “We need public and private actors to change their mentality, moving from an era in which everything was plannable, predictable, controllable, focused on efficiency… to an era in which anything can happen at any time. An era in which we must expect the unexpected.".
"Together, we must ensure that political will is supported by military capabilities." In fact, Admiral Bauer highlighted the need for a change of mentality in both the public and private sectors. He stressed that the responsibility for freedom does not rest solely with those in uniform, but requires a joint commitment of governments and businesses to ensure defense and deterrence. This approach is fundamental in an era characterized by unpredictability and the need for effectiveness.
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