NATO ministerial meeting in Washington to focus on Russian threats

The NATO foreign ministers" meeting in Washington will focus on emerging Russian threats to the alliance, in addition to talks on other key issues, such as counterterrorism and burden sharing, a senior U.S. official announced on Tuesday. Ministers are gathering today to mark the alliance"s 70th anniversary, TURAN's U.S. correspondent reports.

"We are going to make sure that we have the capability to deter a very aggressive Russia," Kay Bailey Hutchison, U.S. Ambassador to NATO, told reporters.
"The risks today most certainly are Russian behavior, the aggression that we saw recently in the Kerch Straits when they attacked and captured the three Ukrainian ships and took their sailors to prison" she said, adding "it"s unacceptable that they would be holding those Ukrainian sailors in prison in Moscow right now."

In an earlier briefing with reporters Tuesday morning, a senior State Department official also made it clear that "all elements of the Russian threat are to be discussed,"" listing concerns ranging from Moscow"s military interventions in Ukraine and Georgia, to Skripal attack in Britain, etc.

More recently, Washington has been irked by Moscow"s support for Venezuela's ruling regime. Turkey too is backing Nicolas Maduro's government.

Washington also worried about the proximity of Russian S-400 air defense systems to U.S. F-35 jets in Turkey because of a possible transfer or disruption of data.

"The United States is very concerned about Turkey having our F-35s in proximity to S-400 Russian system because there could be a transfer of information, communications or even interruption of that," Amb. Hutchison told reporters: "It's a very serious issue."

Asked if Turkey can be expelled from the alliance if it refuses to reverse its decision, Hutchison said, "We want Turkey to stay in the alliance. We want them not to have a Russian missile defense system in the middle of their country that cannot be interoperable with NATO."

In its turn, a senior State Department official also repeated warnings to Turkey not to purchase the Russian S-400 air defense system, saying such a move risks not only removing Ankara from the F-35 stealth fighter jet program, but also triggering sanctions.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.