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LONDON: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday the alliance did not want a return to Cold War hostilities with Russia while expressing support for Britain\u2019s strong stance on the nerve agent attack, reports AFP.<\/p>\nLONDON: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday the alliance did not want a return to Cold War hostilities with Russia while expressing support for Britain\u2019s strong stance on the nerve agent attack, reports AFP.<\/p>\n
He said the targeting of former double agent Sergei Skripal fit a \u201cpattern of reckless behaviour\u201d to which the US-led military alliance had responded, but insisted political dialogue must also continue. \u201cWe don\u2019t want a new Cold War, we don\u2019t want a new arms race, Russia is our neighbour therefore we have to continue to strive for an improved better relationship with Russia,\u201d he told BBC radio.<\/p>\n
He noted that NATO allies have in recent years imposed economic sanctions on Russia and deployed more troops in eastern Europe in response to the \u201cchanged security situation\u201d.<\/p>\n
But he stressed: \u201cTo isolate Russia is not an alternative.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cAt some point Russia will understand that it is in its interests not to confront us but to cooperate with us, and we are ready to do so if they respect some basic norms and rules for international behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n
NATO has backed Britain following the March 4 attack in the southwestern<\/p>\n
English city of Salisbury, which left Skripal and his daughter Yulia in a critical condition.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have no reason to doubt the findings and assessments made by the British government, not least because this takes place at the backdrop of a pattern of reckless behaviour by Russia over many years,\u201d Stoltenberg said.<\/p>\n
British foreign minister Boris Johnson on Friday stressed the government\u2019s \u201cquarrel\u201d was with President Vladimir Putin rather than the Russian people.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur quarrel is with Putin\u2019s Kremlin, and with his decision, and we think it overwhelmingly likely that it was his decision to direct the use of a nerve agent on the streets of the UK, on the streets of Europe, for the first time since the Second World War.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is why we are at odds with Russia,\u201d Johnson said, during a museum visit in west London alongside his Polish counterpart Jacek Czaputowicz.<\/p>\n
Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has questioned whether the Russian<\/p>\n
state was responsible for the attack, warned Friday against a \u201cdrift to conflict\u201d.<\/p>\n
Writing in The Guardian, the Labour leader said \u201ca connection to Russian mafia-like groups that have been allowed to gain a toehold in Britain cannot be excluded\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo rush way ahead of the evidence being gathered by the police, in a fevered parliamentary atmosphere, serves neither justice nor our national security,\u201d he said. Corbyn\u2019s leftwing views have in the past drawn criticism of many of his own MPs, and several among them have defied him to back the Conservative government\u2019s position.<\/p>\n
By Friday morning, 33 Labour MPs had signed a parliamentary motion blaming the Russian state \u201cunequivocally\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday the alliance did not want a return to Cold War hostilities with Russia while expressing support for Britain\u2019s strong stance on the nerve agent attack, reports AFP. He said the targeting of former double agent Sergei Skripal fit a \u201cpattern of reckless behaviour\u201d to which the US-led […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":42259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n