German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has sent a warning to President Putin over the nuclear threat, saying the NATO alliance is ready to provide collective security against Moscow’s aggression.
Scholz on Sunday speaking at the Eastern German Economic Forum attended by his Lithuania counterpart Ingrida Simonyte said NATO will respond to Russia’s aggression and defend itself when necessary.
He added that Germany has played a crucial role in NATO’s presence in the Baltic Sea and will continue to do so against external aggression by deploying more troops to the sea permanently.
Schold said NATO is ready to defend every square inch of its territory against attack.
He described the turnaround in the security policy as necessary steps to show Russia how the allies will reply to the attacks.
“Diplomacy would only be successful from a position of strength, adding that it was vital that Baltic states could fully rely on NATO allies jumping to their defense in the event of a Russian attack
“And that is a message for us. But it is also a message to Russia. Because the credibility of this promise is of course also part of Russia’s calculation”, he said.
NATO continued to turn down Russia’s threat of global escalation should the alliance provide Ukraine with weapons used to strike targets in Russia.