Rome, 24 May 2024 – Russia and Belarus show off their muscles with their nuclear exercises in the Minsk Territory. Yesterday Belarusian President Lukashenko appointed a new Chief of Staff: General Pavel Muraveyka, known for having publicly threatened neighboring NATO member countries, Poland and Lithuania. Meanwhile, Moscow has removed 25 light buoys placed by Estonia on the Narva River to delimit the border with Russia. An escalation of provocations.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (photo Ansa)
And at the same time the prime minister Viktor Orban declares that preparations are underway in Brussels for Europe’s entry into the war. “What is happening today in Brussels and Washington, or currently more in Brussels, is creating the atmosphere for a possible military conflict, which we could also describe as a preparation for Europe’s entry into the war“, he said, quoted by the Hungarian agency MTI. The prime minister added that preparations are underway by working groups in Brussels on how NATO can participate in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Today the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Joseph Borrell, he said: “Trump woke us up on military spending and he was right, he said it harshly but he was right. We spend 1.5-1.6% of European GDP while Russia spends 6.5% and the USA 3.5% so we are very far from the effort necessary to have strength in defense. But I repeat: to date there is no alternative to NATO and for a long time we have talked about a false dilemma.” And he underlined: “We need NATO and an autonomy strategyboth: the contribution of NATO and within it we need to build a strong pillar for European defence, it’s not a question of choosing one thing or the other but both”.
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Also in these hours the Interior Ministers of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Norway and Poland met today in Riga to discuss ways to further and effectively develop civil protection in their respective countries. “The whole region is facing similar threats coordinated by Russia and Belarus: exploitation of migration, cyber attacks, disinformation, sabotage of critical infrastructures and other hybrid threats”, said the Lithuanian Interior Minister, Agne Bilotaite. “This makes it necessary to coordinate civil protection at a regional level in order to better deal with any emergencies” The ministers shared the objective of exploring the possibilities of financing joint measures to strengthen resilience and response to possible dangers by drawing on European Union funding sources and to organise. regional joint mass evacuation exercises. The ministers also discussed the possible establishment of a permanent air protection system of the entire eastern border of NATO through the use of a “wall of drones”.
