Business as usual with Russia out of the question, says NATO Sec Gen

NATO's "business as usual" with Russia is off the table after Moscow's annexation of Crimea, says its leader Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Calling for a hike in allied defence spending and a strategic reduction of Europe's reliance on Russia energy supplies, he said the Euro-Atlantic community must now take a more muscular approach to backing up its diplomacy with hard military power.

"The crisis in Ukraine is a decisive moment and a very dangerous one - not just for us in Europe but across the whole Euro-Atlantic region," Rasmussen said on 21 March to the German Marshal Fund's Brussels Forum of security policy officials.

"It follows a pattern of military pressure and frozen conflicts across our neighbourhood: South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia, and Crimea and Transdnistria" in Moldova. "What connects them all is one big country deciding to re-write the international rules and re-create new dividing lines in Europe. This is based on confrontation and not co-operation, and poses a real threat to the rules that we all agreed to respect. We can no longer do business as usual with Russia", said Rasmussen.

"This is not an isolated incident. It follows a pattern of military pressure and frozen conflicts across our neighbourhood: South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia, and Crimea and Transnistria in Ukraine. What connects them all is one big country deciding to re-write the international rules and re-create new dividing lines in Europe. This is based on confrontation and not co-operation, and poses a real threat to the rules that we all agreed to respect. We can no longer do business as usual with Russia."

Russian officials in the room bristled at his assessment.

"NATO is very close to elaborating its old [Cold War] raison d'être, but I would like to say this is not the situation of Russia," Alexander Grushko, Russia's ambassador to NATO, told Rasmussen. "We are willing to continue co-operation and dialogue, but we don't need permission from the EU and NATO to act in line with international law. Crimea was an absolutely legitimate act: the referendum was overwhelming and it should be respected", Grushko said.

Rasmussen riposted by asking Grushko if Russia would accept Georgia's right to be accepted into NATO. The latter said no.

"We believe it would be a big mistake to do this," he replied. Referring to the Russia-Georgia conflict of August 2008, which saw Tbilisi lose control of its autonomous provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to Russia, he said: "we knocked at the door of NATO to explain our position, but it was you who refused to talk [by suspending the NATO-Russia Council]. Instead, you created the NATO-Georgia Commission. Is that dialogue?"

Forum speaker Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Rasmussen's predecessor during the Russia-Georgia war, told Grushko that: "I concede that we should have not suspended NRC talks after the Georgia conflict, but at the same time Russia's seizures of these two provinces was a pre-planned operation."

In de Hoop Scheffer's view, Russian President Vladimir Putin's actions are his belated answer to NATO's expansion. "He's saying: 'You've made your choice and here is ours.' He's going to create a protective ring of territories where he has influence. And let's not forget that Moldova could be the next step."

Noting that Moscow's manoeuvers bring into question "the very foundation of our co-operation with Russia", Rasmussen said NATO has cancelled all staff meetings with Russia and is reviewing the entire range of its co-operation with an eye to new decisions by allied foreign ministers when they meet in Brussels on 1-2 April.

He also used the occasion to reiterate his standing appeal to the allies that: "we must ensure that we have the full range of capabilities to deter and defend against any threat", adding that: "now we must combine diplomatic soft power with military hard power".

Three priorities now predominate, according to Rasmussen. "We must decrease our energy dependency on Russia by making energy diversification a strategic priority, reinforce our trans-Atlantic economic co-operation on energy security and increase our defence investments in Europe," he declared, adding that Ukraine "is a wakeup call" for those priorities.

"It is necessary to reverse defence budget spending and this situation must be reviewed by all allied capitals. You can't continue with decreasing defence budgets and still think we can deliver the most effective collective defence," he told his listeners.

Indeed, for de Hoop Scheffer, Russia's new aggressive stance carries one positive note. "Putin must be congratulated for underlining the importance of NATO and for possibly stopping the slide in [allied] defence spending. That is the one silver lining in this horrible crisis," he observed.

In a snap poll of the Forum Brussels participants, nearly 53% said NATO's primary goal should be the defence of its home territory.