Lloyd Austin who is the United States Defense Secretary has opined that the United States and its NATO allies have arrived at a critical juncture in the history of the security alliance as regards to their allies.
Lloyd Austin also revealed that the suffering in Ukraine could end immediately if Russia ends “its reckless war of choice.”
The Defence Secretary mentioned this ahead of a meeting with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels on Thursday.
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Austin said the meeting comes at a “critical juncture in the history” of the security alliance.
“We see that as Finland and Sweden have made the historic decision to seek NATO membership.
“We welcome that. They are proud, capable democracies who share NATO’s core values,” he said.
“In recent months, NATO has united in the face of Russia’s unjustified, cruel, and indefensible invasion of Ukraine.
“We’ll continue to strengthen our allies to meet the greatest threat to European security in decades.”
Austin said NATO will continue to support Ukraine “as it defends itself against Russia’s unprovoked aggression” and “continue to adapt our alliance to meet evolving security conditions.”
In another report, it has been revealed that NATO has made a pledge to send some more advanced lethal weapons to Ukraine to help the country advance in winning the ongoing war against Russia.
Jens Stoltenberg who is the Secretary-General of NATO had made this announcement on Wednesday where he opined that the organisation cannot stop supporting Ukraine in its present distress period.
The announcement is coming less than 48 hours after the Ukrainian Government accused its Western partners of being complacent with arm delivery, saying that the weapons delivered to them by the NATO and other Western partners including US, are not enough to defeat Russia.
But Stoltenberg said at a press conference in Brussels that “We are extremely focused on stepping up, providing more support, more advanced weapons … because we support them in their just fight against the brutal Russian invasion.”
According to him, Ukraine will continue receiving, adding that “practical support, lethal and non-lethal support from the alliance.”
He said that with more weapons, Ukraine would be able “to continue to modernize its armed forces, something NATO allies have worked on for many years but stepped up now.”