Alexander Vershbow, Deputy Secretary General of NATO

15.04.2016 14:46

NATO and EU will never accept the Russia’s attempts to establish new dividing line across Europe

Russian aggression has made alterations to the cooperation between Ukraine and NATO. The aggressive actions of Russians have brought down to earth not only Ukrainians. The Europeans are getting rid of the rose-colored glasses as well. Although we are not talking about the membership right now, our partnership with the Alliance has a specific common goal - to counter the imperial plans of Moscow. Understanding the purpose helps to form specific interaction programs. What conclusions has NATO drawn from the conflict in Ukraine? How will it withstand the current challenges and what must Ukraine do for the effective team game with the Alliance? Ukrinform tried to get answers to these questions in conversation with NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow, who took part in the Kyiv Security Forum.

- Since March 2014 Russia has been waging hybrid war against Ukraine. Has NATO made some conclusions from this hybrid war affair and “yes” so what are they?

- We have drawn many conclusions from the assessment of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and the implications of that. … the major implications for the stability of the European security system given (even) that Russia has broken all the rules that it itself helped to write in the Helsinki final act and the other key documents, such as the Charter of Paris, the Budapest Memorandum, etc.

We’ve also been studying closely the use of hybrid methods inthe illegal annexation of Crimea and the promotion of destabilization in the Donbass. None of these technics are new, but the way the Russians have applied them in combination and great intensity has been quite a lesson for Ukraine’s future security but also for our security.

We are working at NATO on a hybrid war strategy the allies have already been approved by our ministers… That’s how important this is. And we are now working internally and with European Union to develop a comprehensive approach to preventing, deterring and defeating hybrid war

I’ve been already met with some Ukrainian officials during my visit who made clear Ukraine is ready to share its experience and its lessons learned, that will be very valuable for allies to work with Ukraine.

So our strategy takes into account the realities of what Russia has done with the disinformation, subversion, coward action, cyberattacks – all the different elements of the hybrid tool kit. So we are prepared if they try it against us.

- So for the last 10 years NATO member countries have been reducing the military spending and different defense budgets. So for sure it has affected the combat capability of the Alliance. What are you going to do to solve this problem?

- This is indeed a serious challenge for the Alliance. With the end of the Cold War everybody cashed in peace dividend and reduce defense spending. But I think what happened to Ukraine two years ago, Alliance realized it was time to reverse this … So one of the most important decisions that are summed at meeting in Wales two years ago was the pledge of all the Alliance leaders was to stop cutting and increase defense spending aiming at the NATO target of 2% of GDP per year. Last year 16 countries of 28 had really increased their defense budgets. Several countries have set plans to reach the 2%-goal in a couple of years.

So, we’ve begun to reverse that but it’s a long way to go.

- Long way… How many years?

- Well, allies give themselves 10 years from the summit so it’s 2024. But many countries will make this target earlier. And it’s also important what they spend their money on. We’re also focusing on getting allies to spend the higher percentage of the total budget on actual new equipments and researching development. So that we have the important capabilities we need to deter Russian aggression and the other threats, because we face threats from the South, from the East. NATO has to be prepared to all kinds of threats.

But we still NATO has overwhelming military power even today. Some of them are however not in high state of readiness , it has weeks or months to be deployed. So we also have to invest to higher readiness as well as to increasing the planes, the ships, the troops that we need in this new environment.

- In your opinion whether the return to block confrontation to NATO and Russian Federation means that Moscow has achieved really its goal in throwing the European Union back in its historical development?

- No, I definitely don’t think Moscow’s achieved its goal. Its’ clear what their goal is – which is to establish new dividing line across Europe, in which countries like Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova are assigned to Russia’s sphere of influence, and they are not allowed to have full sovereignty and independence. They have not achieved that, and NATO and the EU will never accept that.

We have to take actions and not let Russia achieve its goal. Part of that is strengthening our own defense, so that progress we made in expending the community of free countries of democracies through the enlargement of the EU and NATO is consolidated in the future. And we have to help countries that aspire to follow the European path, like Ukraine, to succeed. That’s again one reason that I’m here is to help encourage greater progress, greater momentum on defense and security reform, which is one piece of broader agenda for reform that Ukraine must follow now with the new government. Ultimately, we can help Ukraine but Ukraine has to help itself. So stopping Russia from achieving its objective is our common effort, Ukraine is central for this.

- Do you have any plans to change the “Partnership for peace” format, considering the Russian aggression?

- “Partnership for peace” is still a useful framework for a lot of cooperation that we do with Ukraine, with other countries in Europe, even as far as Central Asia we still have some active work going on with Kirgizstan, Kazakhstan. We also have other partnership framework where we have these similar activities with Middle Eastern countries, with East-Asia countries.

All our practical cooperation with Russia has been suspended, both in the NATO-Russia Council framework but also in the broader “Partnership for peace”. That doesn’t mean we don’t talk to Russia, but practical cooperation in all formats suspended.

- And the last question, maybe it’s naïve a little bit, but is Ukraine membership still in your agenda?

- I would say it’s not on today’s agenda because Ukraine itself is focusing more on reform, on adoption of NATO standards, on improving its ability to contribute to its own security and to European security. So Ukraine is bot pursuing the membership at this time.

But we certainly respect Ukraine’s right to seek membership and if after these reforms successfully carried out Ukrainian people decide to pursue that, we have a process and mechanisms that are available. There’s no discrimination. We stick by the Helsinki principles of countries have the freedom to choose their security arrangements.

Vitaliy Fedianyn, Kyiv

Photo credit: Ukrinform, Photo credit: vistanews.ru