By Janet Ekstract
ISTANBUL- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at a press conference in Berlin reiterated that this is a “great moment of urgency for Europe, the United States, and the world.” Blinken outlined how Russia’s continued threats toward Ukraine and troop escalation on the Ukrainian border is a just a prime example of its previous moves in not honoring agreements that Blinken said have kept the peace across the continent for decades. Blinken added that Putin continues to point the finger at NATO which is a defensive alliance that protects “nearly a billion people across Europe and North America -and at the governing principles of international peace and security that we all have a stake in defending.”
Blinken reiterated that those principles “reject the right of one country to change the borders of another by force…to dictate to another the policy it pursues or the choices it makes, including with whom to associate…and to exert a sphere of influence that would subjugate sovereign neighbors to its will.” He emphasized that allowing Russia to violate those principles with no consequences “would drag us all back to a much more dangerous and unstable time when this continent – and this city – were split in two, separated by no-man’s-lands, patrolled by soldiers with the threat of all-out war hanging heavily over everyone’s lives. It would also send a message to others around the world that these principles are expendable.”
Blinken explained that despite the U.S. and its European allies repeatedly reaching out to Russia with offers of diplomacy and “in a spirit of reciprocity” – he said, “our good-faith gestures have been rebuffed.” The reason for Russia’s provocation Blinken reiterated is not wanting to see Ukraine or any post-Soviet States maintain their sovereignty and self-determination. In addition, Blinken said that Russia’s moves are all about the “rejection of a post-Cold War Europe that is whole and free.”
He added that this is why the U.S. and its European allies are so focused on the looming crisis in Ukraine. Blinken commented: “It’s bigger than a conflict between two countries, and it’s bigger than a clash between Russia and NATO. It’s a crisis with global consequences. And it requires global attention and action.”
