The NATO defense ministers will meet in Brussels this month to discuss the future of NATO’s relationship with Russia. This could potentially change decades of foreign policy. Politico reported Oct. 11 citing a U.S. senior official.
The relationship between NATO and Russia has deteriorated dramatically since the full-scale invasion in Ukraine in February 2022. The 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act remains in force despite increased tensions. The act outlines the mutual aim of “building a stable, peace-loving and undivided Europe.”
NATO states are now attempting to redefine the future relationship of the alliance with Moscow. A senior U.S. official announced that defense ministers from NATO member nations will meet in Brussels on October 17-18 to discuss this issue.
Allies will “map different elements of the (Russia) strategy and advance debates within the alliance which take us to topics like the future of NATO-Russia Founding Act,” said a senior U.S. official on Friday.
The official said, “It is time to craft a new strategic approach in terms of the specific positions (of the allies).”
The October meeting was the first time that official discussions on the topic were held at the level of ministers. Allies have agreed that a new NATO-Russian strategy will be drafted at the next NATO summit in The Hague, scheduled for June 2025.
“Right now, we need to understand across the alliance that the (Founding Act), and the NATO-Russia Council, were built for a new era. I think that the allies will be willing to admit that it was a new era in our relations with Russia and that something else is needed,” the official said.
The NATO-Russia Council was created in 2002 to facilitate collaboration and joint decision-making. The NRC hasn’t met since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of 2022.
Although the number of warnings about a possible clash between Russia and NATO has increased since the war, most analysts and commentators believe that such a scenario will not happen.
The U.S. official stated that the military implications of a revised political strategy will be minimal. Another NATO diplomat expressed concern about a too aggressive strategy sending a disruptive “signal”.
The official stated that the current focus is to gather viewpoints from all member states. At this time, there is no draft document for a revised NATO/Russia strategy.
Mark Rutte, the new NATO secretary general, took over the reins at the beginning of October. He stressed on his first day in office that the alliance must ensure that Ukraine “prevails” as a sovereign nation, independent and democratic.
A senior U.S. government official said, “It is time to craft a new strategic approach in terms of the specific positions (of the allies).” Defense ministers of NATO member nations will meet in Brussels on October 17-18 to discuss this issue.
Mike Johnson, the U.S. House speaker, said on October 11 that he did not want to see any more funding for Ukraine.
Video footage from the scene shows officers standing outside the venue’s doors, intercepting male concertgoers as they exit the venue. Some men are seen being arrested by officers.
According to new estimates, MOL (which owns refineries throughout Hungary and Slovakia) will be able process non-Urals crude oil by the end 2026 as opposed to earlier estimates that it would happen in early 2026.
Slovak Foreign Ministry Juraj Blanar announced on October 11 that Slovakia will expand its base in Michalovce. Instead of supplying new arms to Ukraine, the Slovaks will repair Ukrainian military equipment.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, thanked Germany for their support but stressed the importance of German aid next year and its need to remain unchanged.
Several months back, these infantrymen served their sentences in prison. They are now part of the 1st Separate Assault Battalion (also known as “Da Vinci”).
In a statement released on October 11, the spokesperson for the European Union’s External Service said that it was “appalled by” Victoria Roshchyna’s death and demanded an “independent and thorough” investigation into her death.
Defense Minister Rustem Umerov had planned to merge Defense Procurement Agency and State Rear Operator into one agency, but changed his mind when a NATO announcement said that the agencies should remain separate and that two separate supervisory board should be established.
Operational Command South reported on October 11 that since the beginning of the week, Ukraine has repelled 29 Russian assaults in the oblasts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
“We are working together actively in the international arena, and our assessments of world events are often very similar,” Russian President Vladimir Putin stated of the meeting.
Scholz revealed during a joint news conference that Germany had already delivered a package worth 600 million euro ($660 million) of aid to Ukraine.
Sources told Reuters that the funding would come from the U.S.A., Japan and Canada. They added that it would be backed up by interest generated from frozen Russian asset.
Media Initiative for Human Rights reported on October 11 that Viktoria Roshchyna was a Ukrainian journalist held in Russian detention centres where torture was used against prisoners.
“Looking to a future of prosperity and peace also means looking at the reconstruction. I am pleased to announce that ‘Ukraine Recovery Conference will be held in Rome, Italy on 10 and 11th July 2025,” Italian Premier Giorgia meloni said.
A Ukrainian official stated that “the Russian plan in Kursk Oblast was thwarted thus far” due to Russian forces suffering losses.
In Steven Seagal’s latest documentary, “In the Name of Justice”, which was shared by the Russian state-run platform Smotrim, the actor is shown visiting various occupied areas of Ukraine, including Mariupol.
During a 35-minute meeting, the pope presented Ukraine’s president with a bronze relief with a flower, and the inscription “Peace is fragile flower.”
On Oct. 11, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Turkmenistan and spoke at an international conference attended by Central Asian leaders, including the president of Iran.
The alleged attempts to pressurize the media outlet “are nothing less than anti-democratic, given the essential role that the newsroom plays in upholding the core national value of freedom the press,” Gulnoza Saied, the Committee to Protect Journalists‘ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator said.
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