President Donald Trump says he does not believe Russia will attack a NATO member, days after CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a surprise trip to Moscow. The visit followed Baltic officials' warnings of a deteriorating security environment, while the Pentagon separately pressed European allies to take on more of their own conventional defense.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on August 27 that he does not believe Moscow will attack a NATO country. He said he had held good talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and that Putin is not going to attack NATO territory, without specifying when those talks took place.
The comments follow weeks of rising alarm among Baltic and European officials over possible Russian moves to test the alliance's Article 5 mutual-defense clause, which holds that an attack on one NATO member is an attack on all. They also come right after CIA Director John Ratcliffe made an unannounced trip to Moscow.
Ratcliffe's Moscow trip
Ratcliffe flew to Moscow on August 25 to urge the Kremlin against escalating with US allies, particularly Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, according to sources briefed on the visit. Trump denied Ratcliffe delivered any such warning. According to Axios: "Ratcliffe sees his Russian counterpart once every six months or once every year" and the meeting was routine, Trump said. Asked again later by reporters, Trump appeared to soften his answer, saying he did not want to comment further but that Russia is not going to attack NATO.
The trip followed a July 30 letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, signed by the Baltic, Polish and Finnish commissioners, warning of a deteriorating security environment and an increased frequency of airspace violations and drone incursions. The Wall Street Journal earlier cited US intelligence as stating Russia may test NATO's resolve with a limited incursion as early as this fall. Baltic diplomats said they had seen additional intelligence over the summer on Russian false-flag operations, but no sign of an imminent conventional attack, and noted such operations could extend beyond the Baltics to countries including Germany, Poland and Slovakia.
Pentagon presses allies on defense
Separately on August 27, a senior Pentagon official pressed NATO allies to detail how they are responding to US demands that they take on more responsibility for Europe's defense as Washington reviews its force levels on the continent, a review that began in July and has raised concern among allies about a possible US troop drawdown. US Defense Under Secretary Elbridge Colby said Washington wants a down-to-business conversation about Europe taking primary responsibility for its own conventional defense, and that the Pentagon has sent European countries a questionnaire on their defense efforts.
The Kremlin, for its part, dismissed reports in US media of a possible attack on NATO as scare stories.
Source: Oilprice.com
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