U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers remarks to U.S. Embassy group of workers on the Vilnius Rotuse in Vilnius, Lithuania March 7, 2022.
Olivier Douliery | Reuters
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Monday promised fellow NATO member Lithuania the U.S. will act to repel any Russian army aggression in opposition to that nation and different Baltic international locations.
“The US dedication to [NATO’s] Article 5 – an assault on one is an assault on all,” Blinken mentioned, “that dedication is sacrosanct.”
Blinken was once talking at a information convention in Lithuania’s capital town of Vilnius with that nation’s international minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis. He made equivalent remarks in Latvia, some other Baltic nation that belongs to NATO.
“We will be able to shield each inch of NATO territory if it comes underneath assault,” Blinken mentioned, reiterating feedback made through President Joe Biden in his State of the Union cope with closing week. “Nobody will have to doubt our readiness; no person will have to doubt our unravel.”
However Blinken mentioned in Latvia that there was no determination but on whether or not to position U.S. troops completely within the Baltics.
Lithuania, Latvia and the 3rd Baltic country, Estonia, with fellow NATO participants and different Western nations have supplied help to Ukraine and harshly sanctioned Russia because it invaded the neighboring nation.
That during flip has raised issues that Russia will goal the Baltic states, which were a part of the Soviet Union, along side Russia, ahead of its breakup 3 a long time in the past.
Blinken is because of seek advice from Estonia on Tuesday.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda advised Blinken at a press tournament that the “worsening safety state of affairs within the Baltic area is of serious fear to … all people and all over the world.”
Nauseda mentioned that “Russia’s reckless aggression in opposition to Ukraine as soon as once more proves that this can be a long-term risk to the Ecu safety, the safety of all of the alliance, regardless of how and when the struggle in Ukraine ends.”
The Lithuanian chief mentioned the invasion is “an excellent alternative to reconsider” how NATO responds to and prepares for threats.
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Overseas Minister Landsbergis mentioned, “The US, Lithuania, and different companions of the alliance are doing so much, however we can not prevent.”
“We can not have enough money for Ukrainian towns to develop into some other Srebrenica, Grozny, or Aleppo,” he mentioned, referring respectively to the website of the bloodbath of greater than 8,000 Muslims in 1995 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Chechen town destroyed through Russian forces in overdue 1999 and early 2000, and a town devastated all over the Syrian civil struggle.