July 15, 2024 | Seppo Niemi

Western mania for pan-European war

I have examined and analyzed this topic, western warmongering, in numerous articles since the start of this conflict, some of the latest on July 3, June 18, June 6, May 5, April 1, March 10 and January 5. The common features of this war-syndrome are ever-expanding involvement of NATO and increasingly bellicose speeches of the heads of western states, supported by the mainstream media. Ordinary western citizens are completely aloof from this development, particularly in Europe, and have not realized at all where they are being taken.

NATO Summit, July 9 – 11, in Washington

Confrontation with Russia and military support for Ukraine are the main topics of the three-day NATO summit opening in Washington. In particular, the participants will talk about strengthening the military potential of the alliance, increasing the size of the armies of its member countries, acquiring new weapons, including air defense and missile defense systems, as well as new requirements to increase the defense spending of European states.

NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said “Russian victory in Ukraine is the biggest risk for NATO, we cannot allow this. If Moscow succeeds, the positions of authoritarian leaders in Iran, North Korea and China will strengthen. The outcome of the conflict in Ukraine will determine the global security system for decades.”

The Summit is the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the alliance. However, the celebration will be overshadowed by two events.

Firstly, this is the unsuccessful performance of US President Democrat Joe Biden at a televised debate with the ex-president and his main political opponent, Republican Donald Trump. Even among his most loyal supporters, it raised doubts about the ability of the current US President to lead the United States and NATO. Alliance allies doubt Biden’s prospects for re-election, so the American president should have to show leadership qualities and prove his competence at the summit. In other words, the main focus is on the performance of President Biden, not on the subject matters of the alliance.

Secondly, the recent visits of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to Russia and to China, which the EU and NATO perceived as undermining the alliance’s overall efforts to military support Ukraine, casts a long shadow over the meeting. After the summit, Orban met also ex-president Trump.

Ukraine, as representatives of the bloc countries have repeatedly stated, is not receiving either an invitation to NATO or time-specific promises of admission. Instead, the leaders make again a general political statement that they intend to accept Ukraine in the future, after the end of the conflict with Russia. Under the guise of “security guarantees” for Kiev, a number of decisions have been made that will prolong the military conflict, in particular, concerning supplies of weapons, military training and the exchange of intelligence information.

As for NATO partner countries, in addition to Ukraine, the leaders of Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand have been invited to the summit to discuss military-political counteraction to China and the DPRK. NATO views this confrontation as part of the conflict with Russia. Brussels and Washington believe that China and the DPRK, along with Iran, are the main allies of Russia, helping Moscow cope with the economic pressure of the West and concentrate the military resources necessary to continue the special military operation in Ukraine, despite the supply of weapons to Kiev by all Western states.

Jens Stoltenberg said that NATO intends to ensure that Ukraine “gains the ability to contain Russia.” Therefore, according to Stoltenberg, in order to achieve a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis at the negotiating table, Kiev must be provided with even more weapons. As a result, the alliance countries have so far reached a preliminary agreement that in 2025 they will allocate $40 billion for these needs. Stoltenberg claims that summit participants will call this figure the minimum for military supplies to Kiev in subsequent years.

Washington and its allies intend to take new steps to strengthen Ukraine’s air defense capabilities, US President Joe Biden said in a statement released by the White House press service.

The security agreement between Poland and Ukraine signed in Warsaw provides for the possibility of Poland intercepting missiles in Ukrainian airspace.

The US will provide Ukraine with an additional Patriot battery. In addition, it is expected: 2 Patriot batteries from Germany and Romania, 1 Patriot battery jointly produced by the Netherlands and other partners, SAMP-T system from Italy, Dozens of air defense systems (NASAMS, HAWK, IRIS-T, Gepard) from the US and partners in the coming months, 2 Patriot batteries from Germany and Romania. Germany has already delivered 3 Patriots.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said “As we speak, the transfer of F-16 jets is underway, coming from Denmark, coming from the Netherlands, and those jets will be flying in the skies of Ukraine this summer to make sure that Ukraine can continue to effectively defend itself against the Russian aggression.”

Blinken promised that F-16s are being delivered to Ukraine “as we speak” They are being transferred by Denmark and the Netherlands, and the fighters will be in the skies of Ukraine this summer. While NATO officially announces it will send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, Russian President Putin said F-16 fighter jets are legitimate targets for Moscow, even on third-country airfields. Putin also said, if NATO sends F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, it is an escalation of Russian rhetoric that could potentially lead to a war.

White House Coordinator John Kirby spoke about the true purpose of the NATO summit “He (Putin) will try to interfere with our democracy now and in the future. He wants to cause discord here in the United States. He wants to try to rebuild a world order closer to his selfish interests and twisted ideology. We should expect the worst from Mr. Putin, he continues to demonstrate that he is capable of it. That is why it is so important for the allies to send a strong signal to Vladimir Putin at this NATO summit that he will not be able to sit us out and divide us. We will stand united and resolute against his aggression in Ukraine,” Kirby said on CNN.

Washington Summit Declaration, issued by the Heads of State and Government participating in the meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C. 10 July 2024. The full text is available in the above link.

An interesting discussion on the topic by two well-known Duran experts, Alex Christoforou and Alexander Mercouris.

NATO summit, funeral to circus

by The Duran July 13, 2024

NATO goals and action plans

NATO is escalating the war with Russia.

US Anthony Blinken says that they will have an “incredibly strong” package that will be revealed within the next two days to Ukraine. He stated that the F-16 jets are on their way to Ukraine.

British new Prime Minister Keir Starmer has given Ukraine permission to strike its missiles deep into Russian territory.

Zelenski and Polish Prime Minister Tusk announced the inclusion of Poland in the war and the targeting of Russian missiles directly from Polish territory. Polish General Wieslaw Kukula announced that Poland is preparing the army for war.

Norway will transfer six F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. Baltic Sea will be mined by Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Germany.

However, in the midst of this warlike hum there were some critical voices.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó on his refusal to participate in the NATO mission in Ukraine:

“At the NATO summit it is expected that a decision will be made that NATO will launch a mission to support Ukraine, within the framework of which both the supply of weapons and military training will be coordinated. Our position It is clear that we will stay away from this. We have an agreement with the current Secretary General and we have a promise from the future Secretary General that Hungary will not participate in this NATO mission to support Ukraine. We will not send our soldiers, we will not send our taxpayers’ money to this mission, we will not give up our territory for this mission, and we will continue to deny weapons to Ukraine. This position ensures that we can protect the security of Hungary and the security of the Hungarian people.”

Jacques Hogard, former senior officer of the French Foreign Legion, has recently said a critical statement:

Wrap-up of the ramifications

Based on the talks and declaration of the recent NATO Summit, we can wrap up the situation by saying that “The world is at its most dangerous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962”. Back then, however, the fear of total destruction consumed the public, today few people seem even to be aware of this possibility.

It is easily imaginable that nuclear war could break out between Russia (and perhaps China) and the West, yet politicians continue to escalate tensions, place hundreds of thousands of troops at “high readiness” and attack military targets inside Russia, even while ordinary citizens blithely go on with their lives. The situation is without parallel in history.

Just look at the facts. A hostile military alliance, now including even Sweden and Finland, is at the very borders of Russia. How are Russian leaders—whose country was almost destroyed by Western invasion twice in the 20th century—supposed to react to this? How would Washington react, if Mexico or Canada belonged to an enormous, expansionist and highly belligerent anti-US military alliance?

As if expanding NATO to include Eastern Europe wasn’t provocative enough, Washington began to send billions of dollars’ worth of military aid to Ukraine in 2014, although even President Obama said “Ukraine is a core Russian interest but not an American one”. Why this Western involvement in Ukraine. One reason was given by Sen. Lindsey Graham in a recent TV interview: Ukraine is “sitting on $10 to $12 trillion of critical minerals… I don’t want to give that money and those assets to Putin to share with China.” For NATO’s leadership, Russia and China can’t be permitted access to these resources. The war in Ukraine must, therefore, continue indefinitely and negotiations with Russia mustn’t be pursued.

Meanwhile, as Ukraine was being de facto integrated into NATO in the years before 2022, the United States put into operation an anti-ballistic-missile site in Romania in 2016. These missile launchers that the ABM system uses can accommodate nuclear-tipped offensive weapons like the Tomahawk cruise missile, which can strike Moscow and other targets deep inside Russia, due to having a range of 1,500 miles.

In another bellicose move, the US in 2019 unilaterally withdrew from the 1987 Treaty on Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces. Russia responded by proposing that the US declare a moratorium on the deployment of short- and intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe, saying it wouldn’t deploy such missiles as long as NATO members didn’t. Washington dismissed these proposals, which upset some European leaders.

Now, after more than two years of a US proxy war with Russia that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, the West continues to inch ever closer to the last threshold of the nuclear esclation. Ukraine has begun using US missiles to strike Russian territory

This summer, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Belgium will begin sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine and Denmark and the Netherlands have said there will be no restrictions on the use of these planes to strike targets in Russia. F-16s are able to deliver nuclear weapons, and Russia has said the planes will be considered a nuclear threat.

Bringing the world even closer to terminal crisis, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg states that 500,000 troops are at “high readiness,” and in the next five years, NATO allies will “acquire thousands of air defense and artillery systems, 850 modern aircraft—mostly fifth-generation F-35s—and also a lot of other high-end capabilities. Where all this is heading is unclear but what’s obvious is that Western leaders are acting with reckless disregard for the future of humanity.

It is amazing that millions of people in the west are not protesting in the streets every day to de-escalate the crisis and pull civilization back from the brink. Evidently the mass media have successfully fulfilled their function of manufacturing people blind, deaf and “happy”. But unless the western public wakes up, the current crisis might not end until it is too late.

Zelensky’s “Orwellian message” may get some few people to wake up, “war is peace and killing is loving”.

Russian reactions

Russian Ambassador to the United States Antonov:

“The first day of the NATO summit confirmed the aggressive nature of the alliance. Western countries masquerading as democracies have once again shown their desire to impose authoritarian orders on the entire world based on rules beneficial to the “golden billion. NATO members blindly follow the path of escalation and, in fact, are paving the way to the third world war. During today’s events in Washington, we did not hear a single word about peace. The same escalation of war psychosis and furious demonization of our country. The geopolitical revanchism of Westerners is doomed to failure. The world will not become NATO’s domain.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov put it bluntly

China’s posture

China’s statements

China’s foreign minister Wang Yi has hit back at NATO’s “groundless accusations” that Beijing is helping Russia in its war on Ukraine. He has also warned the Western alliance against stirring up confrontation. Wang said “China absolutely does not accept” all these accusations and insisted that they have “always been a force for peace and force for stability”.

Mr Wang’s comments, made in a call with his Dutch counterpart, came hours after leaders of NATO member states gathered in Washington DC and issued a declaration that mentioned the war. They accused China of being a “decisive enabler” of Russia through its “large-scale support for Russia’s defence industrial base”, in some of their harshest remarks yet about Beijing. Wang said also that China’s different political system and values “should not be used as a reason for NATO to incite confrontation with China” and called for NATO to “stay within its bounds”.

Earlier on Thursday, a foreign ministry spokesperson said NATO was smearing China with “fabricated disinformation”, while Beijing’s mission to the EU told the alliance to “stop hyping up the so-called China threat”.

Beijing has long rebutted accusations that it has been aiding Russia in the war and insists that it remains a neutral party. It has called for an end to the conflict and proposed a peace plan, which Ukraine has rejected.

China’s military exercises – Belarus and Russia

China conducts military exercises in Belarus, “Eagle Assault 2024”, days after Belarus joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), signaling a strong warning to NATO. This move indicates that China is prepared to counter any NATO expansion into Asia by asserting its presence in what could be considered NATO’s “backyard”. Another, a naval exercise, “Joint Sea 2024”, was organized between PLA Navy and Russian Navy on Chinese waters.

New details, regarding the scope of the eleven-day military exercises between the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and the Belarusian Armed Forces, have been revealed by local sources in Belarus. Named Eagle Assault 2024, the exercises in the Brest region are taking place less than 5 km from the borders of Poland – one of NATO’s easternmost members.

While the ground forces of both countries have been involved in multilateral exercises in the past, and Belarusian forces have participated in exercises in China, this represents the first deployment of Chinese ground forces for exercises in Belarus, bringing them unprecedentedly close to NATO territory. The exercises have reportedly been planned for 11 months, since Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu visited Minsk on August 16 for a three-day official visit. The Chinese Defense Ministry reported Eagle Assault drills were conducted according to “an annual plan and consensus”.

According to the Belarusian Defense Ministry, the exercises prepared forces for river crossings, urban warfare and even airborne assaults, raising the possibility that the Chinese Y-20 strategic airlifter deployed to the country may have participated. The chief of the Belarusian Armed Forces special operations command Vadzim Dzenisenka elaborated regarding the need for such exercises: “The situation in the world is difficult, and so we are practicing new forms and methods of solving tactical tasks.”

Belarusian-Chinese exercises began just a day before the NATO summit in Washington. which started on July 9 and just days after Minsk joined the Chinese-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization as its first, and likely its last, European member. Exercises by Chinese forces in the country have been interpreted by a number of analysts as intended to send a signal to Western Bloc states of Beijing’s support for Minsk and by extension for Moscow, should NATO members escalate hostilities in the face of mounting losses in Ukraine.

Finland and Sweden joining NATO – Scandinavian Affair

For nearly half a century, Scandinavia’s neutrality was an important segment of keeping various buffer zones between the Soviet Union and NATO and interestingly, for some reason, neither Sweden nor Finland felt the need to become part of NATO. Thus, if the Kremlin hadn’t invaded Sweden and Finland during the Cold War, it surely wouldn’t be doing it now.

Without widely-expanded Russophobia “Rabid Russophobia”, it’s impossible to explain NATO expansionism in Scandinavia as part of a wider offensive build-up that aims to surround Russia with hostile states and other entities. In the latest such moves, Helsinki and Stockholm just gave the US the legal permission to station troops in the country. The votes in the Finnish and Swedish Parliaments were nearly-unanimous.

Thus, Pentagon will have access to 15 Finnish and 17 Swedish military bases, with the possibility of storing and deploying heavy weapons and all kinds of armament and military material as well as all kind of military troops. It wasn’t specified what sort of arms and equipment that refers to, but it’s not that difficult to imagine. The US is already trying to surround both Russia and China with the previously banned medium and intermediate-range missiles, which is precisely why it’s setting up new military bases all across Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

The recently concluded agreements, Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA), give the US legal grounds to create military exclusion zones, areas that will be accessible to US personnel only. What this really means is that Finland and Sweden effectively relinquished their sovereignty so it could become a legitimate target for Russian missiles. Considering the fact that the US has similar “exclusive access” facilities all over the world and that the Pentagon usually uses them for illegal programs and experiments, including with deadly biological materials, Russia will respond.

Professor John Mearsheimer: The idea of putting troops in Finland is nuts; July 3, 2024

Colonel Douglas Macgregor: Truer words never spoken

The simple fact that Finland and Sweden are allowing the presence of American offensive capabilities on the border with Russia will be enough for the latter to deploy weapons that the former simply has no means of defending against. As the DCA creates a legal framework for a permanent American military presence in Finland/Sweden, this also means that the Kremlin will surely respond in kind, making Helsinki/Stockholm far less safe than was the case before they joined NATO, thus defeating the very purpose of the NATO membership.