Agrees On Settlement Of Tensions, German Defense Minister: Impossible For Russia To Dictate NATO Partners

NATO Military Illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/U.S. Department of State)

JAKARTA - NATO will discuss Russia's security proposals, but will not let Moscow dictate the alliance's military posture, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said on Sunday, during a visit to German troops based in Lithuania to prevent a Russian attack.

On Friday, Moscow laid out a list of demands for the West that included the withdrawal of NATO battalions from Poland and Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which were once part of the Soviet Union.

Russia also demands legally binding guarantees that NATO will cease any military activity in Eastern Europe and Ukraine and an effective Russian veto over future NATO membership for Ukraine, which the West has overridden.

"We need to resolve the current tensions at a diplomatic level, but also by putting in place credible deterrence," Lambrecht told reporters in Rukla on his first visit to German troops abroad.

The combat units, deployed three years after Moscow's 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, are meant to halt attacks and buy time for additional NATO troops to arrive on the front lines.

"We will discuss Russia's proposals. However, it is impossible for Russia to dictate to NATO partners about their (military) posture, and that is something we will make very clear in the talks (next week at the NATO council)," he stressed.

Previously, the West had threatened tough economic sanctions on Russia if Moscow stepped up its military build-up on the Ukrainian border. Meanwhile, Moscow says it is only responding to threats to its security from Kyiv's increasing close ties with NATO.

Speaking with Lambrecht on Sunday, Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas accused Russia of trying to disrupt the alliance and said NATO must not allow Moscow to divide Europe into spheres of influence.

"We need to support Ukraine at all costs, including the delivery of lethal weapons," Anusauskas said, without providing details on what kind of weapons he was referring to.

Lambrecht declined to comment on Spiegel's report Saturday regarding NATO's top general Tod Wolters who had suggested the alliance should establish a similar military presence as in Poland and the Baltic states of Bulgaria and Romania.