(Antalya) NATO has a responsibility to prevent the conflict between Russia and Ukraine from becoming “an open war between Russia and NATO”, its Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday in an interview with the AFP, in Antalya, southern Turkey.
Posted at 8:28
“We have a responsibility to prevent this conflict from escalating beyond Ukraine’s borders and becoming an open war between Russia and NATO,” he said on the sidelines of the Diplomatic Forum organized by the Turkish presidency, to justify the Atlantic Alliance’s refusal to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine to protect the population from Russian bombardments.
Such a step “would mean being ready to shoot down Russian planes,” he said, “and would most certainly lead us to open warfare.”
And this conflict, he warned, would add “more suffering, more death and destruction”.
We support Ukraine and impose sanctions on Russia, but at the same time I asked [aux pays membres] to declare that we will not send NATO troops on the ground or NATO planes into the skies of Ukraine.
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General
The NATO official, of which Turkey is a member, was due to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday, the day after the first talks between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers in the seaside resort.
Despite the failure of these first direct discussions at this level, Mr. Stoltenberg hailed Turkey’s role and considered it “important to facilitate a political solution” to the conflict that has been going on since February 24.
He called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to “put an end to this senseless war” and find a “political solution”.
“The first measure would be to guarantee humanitarian corridors allowing people to go out and get food and medicine,” he said.
Mr. Putin, for his part, said he saw “positive progress” in the talks with Ukraine, during a meeting with his Belarusian ally Alexander Lukashenko on Friday.
Turkey, an ally of Ukraine to which it has delivered combat drones, is simultaneously keeping an open line with Moscow.
Turkish presidential spokesman İbrahim Kalın reaffirmed in an interview with CNN on Friday that Ankara does not plan to join Western sanctions.
The national company Turkish Airlines continues to serve Moscow – even if the low-cost company Pegasus has announced the suspension of flights from March 13 to 27, the time to “reassess” the situation.
“We are not currently planning to impose sanctions on Russia. Because we want to keep open the channel of trust, the lines of communication. And of course we don’t want our economy to be affected,” Mr. Kalin acknowledged.
He also stressed the interest of carrying out several diplomatic initiatives at the same time: “we must see Thursday’s meeting in Antalya as a step that will lead to others”, he hoped.
More than 80 ministers, deputy ministers and government officials were invited to the Diplomatic Forum in Antalya.