German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer in a blunt message asked her European counterparts to “forget your lofty ideas about the Continent defending itself and get real.”
She told Politico if the idea behind the phrase (strategic autonomy) is “we are detaching ourselves from America, then I think that is the wrong way to go.”
This comes on the heels of the statement made by NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg acknowledging France's disappointment in the AUKUS agreement and assuring French President Emmanuel Macron that NATO allies will find a way. Some European leaders have said that as a takeaway from the Afghanistan debacle, Europe must be able to operate more on its own militarily. Kramp-Karrenbauer, however, argues that the fiasco demonstrates that Europe and the US need to cooperate more closely to be more effective militarily.
“If you are pursuing longer-term political aims with this, possibly you need even more patience than 20 years, and above all...you have to describe the aims in very concrete and realistic terms, because otherwise, you get what we saw in Afghanistan -- that we achieved our military aims over 20 years but nation-building ultimately failed in the long term,” Kramp-Karrenbauer told PTI.
“I can understand the annoyance of France,” she told Politico, adding that “however, it is to be noted that it was, first of all, a bilateral question of armament between two states.” She also added that NATO will have to focus more on China.
Kramp-Karrenbauer said that she hopes EU allies in NATO would make better use of what is already there to be more effective. She added that it is a question of, “how we can make better use of the national capabilities we have on a European level, which can also be used by NATO. For example, strategic air transport. We have a European approach there.”
The Russain fallout
Russia's state-owned news agency, RIA, on Thursday, reported that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko warned NATO that any move toward Ukraine's membership in the alliance will have consequences. Rudenko made the statement after he was questioned about US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin's remarks during a visit to Ukraine earlier this week, where he stated that Washington supported Kyiv's aspirations to join the transatlantic alliance (NATO) and that no country could block such a step. This statement comes at the heels of Russia's announcement on Monday, that it is suspending its mission to NATO and closing the alliance's offices in Moscow.
NATO defence ministers, on Thursday, are set to discuss a new master plan to defend against any potential Russian attack on multiple fronts; to reassert its bid to deter Russia. The closely guarded strategy aims to prepare for any simultaneous attack in the Baltic and the Black Sea regions. It goes beyond securing regional borders, taking into account nuclear weapons, hacking of computer networks or from space.
Diplomats and officials, however, feel that such an attack isn't imminent. A senior US government official said that such a conflict will require activity across the entire area of operations.
NATO defence ministers are weighing what lessons to draw from the almost two-decade-long military mission in Afghanistan, including whether the world's biggest security organization should even undertake major operations outside Europe and North America.
“We should not draw the wrong conclusion on Afghanistan and think that NATO allies and NATO should never again engage in military operations to fight extremism or terrorism,” the secretary-general of NATO Jens Stoltenberg said.
NATO took the lead on international security efforts in Afghanistan in 2003 but ended combat operations in 2014 to focus on training local security forces.
As per Western sources, Russia, in May, gathered 100,000 troops on its border with Ukraine-- the greatest number since Moscow took Crimea in 2014. Russia utilised new battle robots in big military drills with Belarus, an ex-Soviet partner, in September, alarming Baltic allies. Russia is creating "super weapons" by modernising or replacing Soviet military space systems to potentially target satellites in orbit and developing artificial intelligence-based technologies to disrupt allied command systems. These include nuclear-capable hypersonic cruise missiles that can elude early-warning systems, which were unveiled in 2018.
Retired US General Ben Hodges, who commanded US Army forces in Europe from 2014 until 2017, told Reuters he hoped the strategic plan would lead to more coherence in NATO's collective defence, meaning more resources for the Black Sea region.
"This is the way of deterrence," Kramp-Karrenbauer said of the plan."And this is being adapted to the current behaviour of Russia and we are seeing violations particularly of the air space over the Baltic states, but also increasing incursions over the Black Sea." Kramp-Karrenbauer said it was important to learn that purely military aims alone are not sufficient when the ultimate goal is to foster democracy and stabilize a country wrecked by decades of conflict.