On Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he is “confident” that NATO will reach a consensus on accepting Finland and Sweden after speaking with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu.
Blinken attended a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Berlin on Sunday. “I don’t want to characterize the specific conversation that we had either with the foreign minister or within the NATO sessions themselves, but I can say this much: I heard, almost across the board, very strong support for [Finland and NATO] joining the alliance if that’s what they choose to do. And I’m very confident that we will reach consensus on that,” Blinken told reporters.
On Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara “doesn’t hold positive views” of Finland and Sweden’s potential membership, signaling Turkey might block them from joining the alliance. Turkey’s issue is Helsinki and Stockholm’s alleged support for the PKK, a Kurdish militant group Ankara considers to be a terrorist organization.
Following the NATO foreign minters meeting, Cavusoglu signaled Ankara is still not totally on board with the two Nordic countries joining the alliance. “Countries supporting terrorism should not be allies in NATO,” he said. But other NATO officials echoed Blinken’s comments and said they don’t expect Turkey to block Finland and Sweden’s membership.
“Turkey has made it clear that their intention is not to block membership,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said. “I’m confident that we will be able to address the concerns that Turkey has expressed in a way that doesn’t delay the membership.”
So it appears NATO gave Erdogan an alternative. That or Turkey was full of it from the beginning.
Pentagon promised them F-35 jets…?!
Of course, the USA’s neocon “top diplomat” will ensure no peaceful and sensible decision is ever made.
Yes, it’s classic Don Corleone diplomacy falsely attributing a commitment from them, …with the otherwise implied threat of having your wife’s face blown off by an IDF style hit man.
Russian Bloggers ‘Shocked’ at Military’s ‘Incompetence’ in Ukraine
Russian mini-bloggers are “shocked” at their military’s “incompetence” as Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to push his internationally condemned invasion of Ukraine, a new report said.
After reports surfaced Wednesday that Ukraine had destroyed a Russian unit attempting to traverse the strategically significant Siversky Donets river in Ukraine’s southeastern Donbas region, a number of Russian observers of the conflict reportedly became alarmed. Drone footage has since confirmed the reports of the Russian unit’s destruction.
“The Ukrainian destruction of significant elements of a Russian motorized rifle brigade that tried to cross a pontoon bridge over the Siverskyi Donets River on May 11 has shocked prominent Russian milbloggers. Those bloggers have begun commenting on the incompetence of the Russian military to their hundreds of thousands of followers,” the report said.
It pointed out that these mini-bloggers previously had been “cheering on the Russian military,” but now “criticized Russian armed forces leadership for failing to learn from experience in the war.” The report continued, saying, “They also expressed the concern that the constant pushing of Russia’s propaganda lines was making it hard for them to understand what was actually going on.”
Anaisanesse, I’m sure you know of this already…
A lot of that is self-inflicted.
– Russia’s military budget not only is small but gets stripped down to 60-70% by Putin and his oligarch crew.
– The military equipment manufacturers are known for taking short cuts to meet requirement delivery dates, keep the Kremlin happy, and keep their profiting contracts
– No delegation of authority; Unlike the West, they don’t have a strong NCO corps and orders are given by senior officers directly to the troops.
– They promote to Generals based on loyalty to Putin instead of the most qualified and intelligent. This is to prevent insubordination and having a military coup.
– Poor intelligence, logistics and communications
– No command and control, and the right hand doesn’t talk to the left hand.
– They still have conscripts who don’t understand the orders
– And too much of the armed forces is distracted preparing for their military parades
The list goes on.
Hopefully someone in power will be held accountable…
NATO is the ‘gift’ that keeps on giving…….
Ahh, you mean Putin, right?
With him at the helm, every day is Christmas Eve for the west.
When did America become the Fascists?
Neutrality is more beneficial than promises from an obama lackey!
Which was the last US president you approved of?
Maybe Grover Cleveland. Maybe.
I hope you don’t live in the US then 😀
Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989.
Ok, he achieved a lot.
So basically, Turkey allows NATO membership for Sweden and Finland on condition that they extradite alleged terrorists to Turkey, Sweden and Finland vaguely agree to that once members, with no clear timetable, and Blinken idiiot gets to claim an all clear for their NATO memberships. It’s all smoke and mirrors stuff really, a bit like various gas and oil sanctions against Russia. All in the never never.
Erdogan just said today he wouldn’t support Finland and Sweden NATO membership… So Blinken is day dreaming…!
Don’t get your hopes up, comrade.
Erdogan is only interested in securing some financial help for Turkey.
Say that to Blinken not me…!