NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg met with EU defence ministers in Brussels on Thursday. As Slovak Defence Minister Jaroslav Nad informed, the main topics of the discussion were military mobility, the withdrawal of Russian forces from the Ukrainian border and the situation in Afghanistan. Stoltenberg claimed that NATO continues to closely monitor Russia's significant military build-up in and around Ukraine.
Aside from Afghanistan and Russian-Ukrainian tension, also broached at the working lunch between the defence ministers and Stoltenberg was the Vrbetice case. According to Nad, the Czech Defence Minister asked his foreign counterparts to discuss the issue. A number of EU member states explained why they had expelled Russian diplomats and other countries signalled that they are considering a similar course of action. "Everyone around the table concurred that this is absolutely unacceptable and showed a great deal of solidarity with the Czech Republic," stated Nad.
The defence ministers were told by Stoltenberg that although Russians are withdrawing their troops from the border with Ukraine, it is a slow process and will likely entail only a partial withdrawal. "There's no need to celebrate the defusing of tension too much because in reality the Russian troops will stay very close and in great numbers," underlined Nad.
Source: TASR
