MOSCOW, February 17 Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance Jens Stoltenberg said that the creation of a nuclear potential for Europe, when there is already an established system of nuclear deterrence within NATO, will not bring any benefit.
«The idea of developing a kind of parallel joint nuclear deterrence system among some NATO members without including the US or UK will not be useful and will only undermine nuclear deterrence (NATO — ed.), which has worked well for many, many years,» he said he's at the Munich Security Conference. The broadcast was carried out on the event website.
He also noted that any discussions calling into question the current nuclear deterrent system will only undermine the alliance.
Earlier, former US President Donald Trump, at a rally of supporters in South Carolina, said that when he was president, the head of an unnamed “big country” NATO asked him whether the United States would provide protection to the alliance in the event of an “attack.” «Russia. Trump told him that he would not do this, since NATO countries do not allocate enough funds for defense. The ex-president added that he would “approve if they (the Russian Federation) do whatever the hell they want.” A number of German and European politicians, in response to Trump's words, called for the creation of a pan-European army and its own nuclear umbrella in the EU.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg responded by saying that the statements of former US President Donald Trump should not lead to the beginning of the collapse of the alliance.
Moscow has repeatedly noted that NATO is aimed at confrontation. As Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov emphasized, further expansion of the bloc will not bring greater security to Europe.