Today and tomorrow the most complex NATO summit in recent years will take place in Newport, Wales. Around sixty heads of state and government were present, including the Russian Vladimir Putin, since Moscow is no longer part of the largest military alliance in the world. Two very delicate dossiers on the summit table: the Ukrainian crisis, where the Kremlin is accused of having intervened militarily in direct support of pro-Russian separatists, and the war in Iraq, where Isis continues to reap victims (yesterday's publication of a new video containing the beheading of another American reporter, Steven Sotloff).
President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron came together in support of Ukraine in a joint statement published in the British newspaper The Times on the eve of the summit: “Russia has broken the rules with its illegal and self-proclaimed annexation of Crimea and by sending troops to Ukrainian soil, threatening and undermining the foundations of a sovereign state – write the two leaders -. With Russia attempting to force a sovereign state to abandon its right to democracy and decide its future with weapons, we shall uphold Ukraine's right to decide its own democratic future and continue our efforts to strengthen the means of Ukraine".
Obama and Cameron also say that NATO should set up a "permanent" presence in Eastern Europe, supported by a rapid reaction force composed of land, air and sea special forces, which could "be deployed anywhere in the world in very short time". quick". The two leaders then called on the other members of the Atlantic Alliance to respect the objective of allocating at least 2% of their GDP to military spending, in order to show that "our collective resolve is stronger than ever".
From Tallinn, Obama - visiting to comfort the Baltic countries that feel threatened by Russia - warned Moscow: "Borders are not redrawed with guns", even if he said he was in favor of a political agreement. Before the members of the Estonian army, however, he used less conciliatory tones: on the part of Russia there was a "deplorable assault" against Ukraine, "a threat to peace in Europe", thundered Obama, who reiterated: " We will not accept any Russian occupation in any part of Ukraine”.
In short, the USA and Great Britain are not taking a step back, despite having arrived yesterday soothing signals for a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. According to Putin, representatives of the government in Kiev and the separatists of south-eastern Ukraine “could reach agreements on a peaceful solution at the meeting of the contact group (with OSCE and Russia) to be held in Minsk on 5 September.
