... Security Leadership Group (EASLG)
Statement by the Euro-Atlantic Security Leadership Group (EASLG)
Today, the United States, NATO, and Russia continue to severely curtail dialogue on crisis management in the Euro-Atlantic region, depriving ourselves of ... ... Initiative (
NTI
)—have been working with former and current officials and experts from a group of Euro-Atlantic states and the European Union to test ideas and develop proposals for improving security in areas of existential common interest. The EASLG operates ...
... summit in Quebec in June, which ended in fiasco with Donald Trump withdrawing his signature from the final communiqué. The refusal was accompanied by harsh criticism of Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, whom Trump accused of lying and undermining ... ... especially Stockholm have become a weak link in European neutrality. The sustained efforts of the USA to draw Finland and Sweden into NATO, if not de jure, then de facto, are by no means accidental. The next step in this direction was the signing on 8 May in Washington ...
... favorable opportunities for all the international community in geographic areas, where Russia is highly engaged.
The Baltics
Contrary to promises from President Reagan, the three Baltic countries, former members of the Soviet Union, became members of NATO, an alliance directed against Russia. And contrary to their official status as “neutral” countries, Sweden and Finland, have after the Cold War also become more or less NATO members de-facto. Should the three Baltic states and even Finland one ...
... and Security-Building Measures and Disarmament in Europe should be revisited and possibly reapplied to the region. This type of engagement could serve to improve existing relations including between Russia and the Baltic states and between Russia and NATO.
— Dialogue on Ukraine would be facilitated by engaging new actors skilled in conflict resolution. A peacekeeping arrangement under the auspices of the UN should be welcomed by all parties. Ukraine, Russia, the EU and the US need to remain engaged ...
... serious political axe to grind with Germany and China. Berlin is being chided for its “insufficient contribution” to the NATO budget and its unswerving commitment to the Nord Stream II gas pipeline, whereas Beijing is suspected of “hegemonic aspirations” ... ... associations, are beside the point here. Germany, for its part, has numerous fairly tangible obligations within NATO and the European Union. Berlin may be the driver of the European Union, but within NATO it often finds itself playing supporting roles....
Russia is not an alternative to Turkey’s cooperation with the European Union; neither Turkey is a substitute for Russia working harder to resolve its problems with the United States and Europe
... ... cocktail and offered to the Russian and Turkish public. We will continue to live with numerous paradoxes. For instance, Turkey is a NATO member, but it plans to purchase the most advanced Russian air defense systems (S-400). The two countries actively cooperate ...
There are growing fears inside the European Union that Donald Trump’s pragmatic approach of cooperation with Russia will further strengthen the position of those in EU member states who criticize Brussels
The NATO Summit, held on July 11–12, 2018, gave Brussels and the EU countries good reason to fear any decisive steps that Donald Trump might take with regard to Moscow. There were even suggestions that the unrelentingly tense atmosphere between the NATO ...
... prophets referred to various harbingers of the looming cataclysms. They mentioned the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union and the victory of a non-system candidate in the U.S. presidential election. They highlighted the nearly global ... ... pessimistic views on the inevitability of Western decline.
It is true that after Trump became president, disputes intensified within NATO as to how the burden of defense expenses should be distributed within the Alliance. However, the May 2017 NATO summit in ...
... World communism professed a similar doctrine in the twentieth century. Prior to that, crusaders and colonizers had tried to impose Christianity, now half-forgotten in the West... ... of interstate relations were viciously trampled upon. In 1991, Germany and then the European Union as a whole recognized the independence of Croatia and Slovenia which... ... law and became one of the factors that triggered a civil war in Yugoslavia. In 1999, NATO bombed defenseless remains of the country for 78 days. The West then recognized...
... Such issues can make it even more difficult for the respective administrations to reconcile complex issues and disputes.
A number of key issues and disputes are already proving difficult to resolve, not even considering the added problem caused by accusations of mutual election interference. These include security concerns and disputes revolving around NATO and European Union enlargement, Russian actions in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, as well as the nature of the conventional and nuclear arms race that has been escalating at least since the turn of the 21st century.
In June 2017, Moscow canceled talks with Washington ...
