KERRY: WASHINGTON READY TO SUPPORT NATO PARTNERS

Brussels, 1 Jumadil Akhir 1435/2 April 2014 (MINA) – US Secretary of State John Kerry says Washington is ready to support its NATO partners in central and Eastern Europe in the wake of the recent developments in Ukraine.

After a meeting in Brussels of NATO foreign ministers on Tuesday, Kerry said that he made clear to members of the alliance that they need to step up defense spending to show that NATO is committed to allies’ shared security.

“It is important for everybody in the world to understand that the NATO alliance takes seriously this attempt to change borders by use of force,” he said, referring to the recent decision by Ukraine’s Crimea to region Russia. “So that is the wake-up call.”

It is the first meeting of foreign ministers from the 28 NATO members since Crimea announced it would break away from Ukraine, a decision that triggered the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War, according to Press TV report quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA), Wednesday.

The Russian attempt to anex the Crimean Peninsula came last month amid a political upheaval in Ukraine that followed the ouster of former president Viktor Yanukovych.

The United States and Russia accuse each other of interfering in Ukraine’s affairs.

Kerry accused Russia’s move as “illegal” saying that the US and NATO jointly condemn Moscow’s deployment of troops near Ukraine’s borders as “tactics of intimidation.” But he welcomed Kremlin’s recent decision to pull back a battalion away from the frontier.

After the meeting, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters that they would review the military alliance’s relations with Russia at their next meeting in June.

Rasmussen said cooperation between NATO and Russia on anti-narcotics operations would continue.

On Tuesday, Ukraine’s parliament granted permission for foreign military units to conduct military exercises in Ukraine in 2014. (T/E01/IR)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)