[NTD, Beijing, Medi 21, 2022]NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday (September 21) that despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order to mobilize 300,000 reserve troops, the war will not be won. Stoltenberg called Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons “dangerous and reckless rhetoric.”
Stoltenberg said in an interview with Reuters that Putin’s speech on the partial mobilization of the Russian people was Russia’s first mobilization since the Second World War to intensify the war and pay more lives. He said the move proved that Putin’s attack on Ukraine on February 24 was a “misjudgment”.
Putin made a nationally televised address on Wednesday in which, in addition to calling up 300,000 troops, four Russian-occupied regions will hold a “referendum” on whether to join Russia, and he has hinted that he is ready to use weapons nuclear to protect Russia.
“If the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will use all available means to protect our people, it is not a cliff,” Putin said, adding that Russia “has many weapons to deal with them.”
Stoltenberg said NATO would remain calm and “will not engage in the kind of reckless and dangerous nuclear rhetoric that President Putin has engaged in.” Stoltenberg added, “President Putin’s speech shows that the war did not go according to President Putin’s plan. He made a big miscalculation.”
“Recruiting more troops will worsen the conflict. It will mean more suffering, more loss of life – Ukrainian lives, but also Russian lives.”
Putin’s speech comes as casualties and defeats of Russian troops, who were driven out of the northeast by Ukraine’s counter-offensive this month and stuck in the south.
NATO chief on ‘only way to end war’
Stoltenberg said that despite the ill-equipped Russian army and lack of proper command and control, it is difficult to see an end to the conflict anytime soon as long as Russia does not accept Ukraine as a sovereign and independent state.
“The only way to end this war is to prove that President Putin will not win on the battlefield. When he realizes that, he has to sit down and negotiate a reasonable deal with Ukraine, ” he said.
Stoltenberg says NATO members have provided unprecedented support to Ukraine; since NATO is ready “long term” to deal with Putin, the alliance is now in close dialogue with the defense industry to stockpile arms and ammunition.
NATO Secretary General: China is not NATO’s adversary
Stoltenberg said Sino-Russian cooperation and China’s rhetoric against NATO expansion since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine show why Western defense alliances should see Beijing as a security challenge. But he does not see China as an “adversary” to NATO.
“In short, this adds to the importance of NATO allies standing together and realizing that China is the security challenge we need to face today and in the future,” Stoltenberg said.
He pointed to China’s “coercive behavior” in the South China Sea and its neighbors and “the way it violates basic human rights.”
(Comprehensive reporting by reporter Chen Beichen/responsible editor: Lin Qing)
URL of this article: https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2022/09/21/a103533620.html
