US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Russia to take “escalating measures” against Ukraine and said on Tuesday that “any renewed aggression would have serious consequences.”
Speaking to reporters along with Latvian Foreign Minister Edgar Rinkevics during a visit to Riga, Blinken said the United States was “very concerned” about Russian troops’ movements along the border with Ukraine.
Concerns about Russia’s military build-up will be discussed later Tuesday and Wednesday during a NATO ministerial meeting in Riga. Blinken said he would have much more to say on the subject after these consultations with NATO allies.
Ahead of the ministerial talks, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called on Russia to reduce tensions in the region, saying the military build-up was “unprovoked and unexplained”.
“All future Russian aggression against Ukraine would come at a high price and have serious political and economic consequences for Russia,” Stoltenberg said on Monday.
The talks in Riga also come when NATO members Latvia, Lithuania and Poland are dealing with a border crisis with neighboring Belarus.
The European Union accuses Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko of attracting thousands of migrants, mainly from the Middle East, to travel to Belarus and try to cross into Latvia, Lithuania and Poland to destabilize the EU. The EU says Lukashenko’s retaliation for sanctions against his government
Blinken said on Tuesday that the United States, in coordination with the EU, is preparing further sanctions against Belarus for what he called “its ongoing attacks on democracy, on human rights, on international standards.”
“As long as the regime in Belarus refuses to respect its international commitments, undermines peace and security in Europe, continues to oppress and abuse its own people who are simply trying to live in freedom, we will continue to put pressure on the regime and we will not reduce our liability requirements, “said Blinken.
Another main focus of the work at NATO’s ministerial meeting is to update what the group calls its strategic concept, which was last changed a decade ago.
Stoltenberg said it was important to review the strategic document given the changing nature of the threats facing NATO, what he called a “more dangerous world”.
“We see Russia’s behavior, we see cyber, we see terrorist threats, we see the proliferation of nuclear weapons,” Stoltenberg said. “And we see the security implications of China, which is now becoming more and more of a global power.”
On Wednesday, Blinken will travel to Sweden to meet ministers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and discuss bilateral relations with Swedish officials.
Some information for this report came from Reuters.
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Source: sn.dk