NATO urged Russia on Wednesday to tone down its "fiery rhetoric" after repeated Moscow attacks on the growing influence of the military alliance and US plans to base parts of a missile shield in Europe.
"We have seen too much rhetoric at too high a level ... we would like to see it dialled down," NATO spokesman James Appathurai told the Russian press in a video conference, speaking from Brussels.
"Fiery rhetoric does make the headlines and there has been a little too much of it," he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday accused NATO of aiming to replace the UN and warned of raising the potential for conflict.
"You get the impression that attempts are being made to set up an organization that would substitute for the UN," he said after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Relations between Russia and the Western military alliance have deteriorated in recent years amid a NATO expansion drive, US plans to install anti-missile defenses in central Europe and Moscow's suspension of a key Cold War-era arms pact.
Putin is expected to attend a NATO summit early next month in Bucharest with some 50 state leaders including US President George W. Bush.
In a move to ease strained US-Russian relations, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates will visit Moscow next Monday and Tuesday to meet with their Russian counterparts and seek talks with Putin and president-elect Dmitry Medvedev, aides said.
Washington's anti-missile shield plans to install 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic have angered Russia, which sees them as a threat to its security.
US defense officials say the system is intended to counter a possible attack from "rogue" states such as Iran.
A NATO expert said on Wednesday that the alliance's leaders will discuss at the April 2 summit a new analysis of the threat posed by a possible missile attack, as well as the role of the proposed US system and how NATO might complement it.
The new analysis "will allow heads of state and government to have informed discussions and eventually make decisions on a NATO approach to missile defense," said Peter Flory, head of NATO's defense investment division.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to take action against the EU if it moves forward with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s proposal to make Canada the bloc’s first associate member. “If they do that, if I think it’s at all a hostile act; I will put very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe on many things,” Trump told reporters en route to an event in North Carolina, calling the proposal “laughable.” “If it’s a good intention, that’s fine. If it’s a bad intention, we’ll put very heavy tariffs on Europe,” he said. Von der Leyen made the proposal
ON THE MOVE: Trump unexpectedly cut short a trip to return to the White House, while the State Department warned Americans to avoid travel to the Middle East The US on Saturday warned that hostilities between Saudi Arabia and Iran-backed Houthis could “escalate rapidly” after a missile attack targeted Riyadh for the first time since the Yemen conflict resumed. US President Donald Trump on Saturday cut short a weekend at Camp David, a secluded presidential complex in rural Maryland, to return unexpectedly to the White House. The White House gave no explanation for the early return, which comes as a new threshold was crossed in the conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, who control a large part of Yemen and are fighting government forces backed by a coalition led
The US military came close to boarding a Chinese vessel in the Middle East earlier this year based on a flawed intelligence report prepared with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), CNN said on Friday. US intelligence indicated the ship was carrying nuclear weapons-related components, leading US forces to prepare to intercept it, the broadcaster reported, citing four anonymous sources familiar with the incident. However, the operation was called off after officials determined that an AI chatbot used by an analyst had misidentified the material the ship was carrying. The report was “entirely false,” but “almost started a war,” CNN quoted one source
World leaders gather in New York this week for the UN General Assembly, bracing for US President Donald Trump’s return to the rostrum for a second year running, with talks centering on the widening conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine and the risks of artificial intelligence (AI). Nearly 130 heads of state meet with the post-World War II order under strain and with the UN itself struggling to remain relevant and weathering attacks from Trump, who has slashed the US’ contributions and withdrawn from dozens of UN bodies. Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), who last addressed the diplomatic jamboree via video
RSS