NATO defense ministers who will meet next week will begin to rethink the alliance's decade-long policy on relations with Russia in response to the threat from the Kremlin, UNN reports with reference to Politico.
Media reports say that NATO-Russia relations have hit rock bottom after Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In response, NATO has called Russia "the most significant and direct threat to the security of Allies," while the Kremlin claims that NATO's eastward expansion is a danger to its existence.
However, despite the change in tone, NATO still supports the "Basic Act" with Russia. This is a document signed in 1997, six years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which provides for the common goal of "building a stable, peaceful and indivisible Europe.
The NATO-Russia Council, a post-Cold War body established for security partnerships and joint projects, has not met since 2022. Relations have steadily deteriorated over the years, with Russia attacking Georgia in 2008 and then illegally annexing Crimea in 2014.
NATO nations are now trying to "map out the various elements of (Russia's) strategy and open up debate within the alliance that will lead us to topics such as the future of the NATO-Russia Founding Act," a senior U.S. official told reporters on Friday.
"It is time to develop a new strategy in terms of specific positions (of allies)," the official said.
The publication notes that although official discussions at a lower level have been going on for months, next week's meeting of NATO defense ministers will be the first of several rounds of ministerial discussions on the topic. During the July NATO summit in Washington, the allies agreed to develop a new NATO-Russia strategy at the next alliance summit, scheduled for June 2025 in The Hague.
The US official added: "Now we have to have an understanding in the alliance... that (the Founding Act) and the NATO-Russia Council were created for a different era, and I think the allies are ready to say that this was a different era in our relationship with Russia, and therefore deserves something new.
The official said that there is no draft of the new strategy yet, as attention is focused on gathering opinions from 32 NATO countries.
There is disagreement over how far NATO should go to create a new set of rules when it comes to Russia. A NATO diplomat said that some NATO members are concerned that a new very aggressive strategy could send a "signal" that could destabilize Russia.
In addition, there is the issue of Hungary and Slovakia, two NATO countries that are disrupting ties with the rest of the alliance by continuing to maintain contacts with the Kremlin and seeing strategic value in engaging with Russia.