NATO says it has activated defense elements for the use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. What it means in practice is not told to Finland as a country outside the military alliance.
Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference in Brussels on Thursday that the military alliance is preparing for chemical, biological and nuclear attacks.
Stoltenberg spoke of “activating defense elements.”
– As Finland is not a member of NATO, we do not know exactly what it is about. These are precisely the things that are not told to the partner countries, Colonel Petteri Kajanmaa The National Defense College said.
– But I might think it is related to the identification mechanisms associated with the use of such a system.
It is therefore not a question of NATO activating its own nuclear weapons.
– It specifically means the ability to identify and combat. Otherwise, NATO would be talking about retaliation, Kajanmaa said.
The Finnish officer cannot say anything certain about the details of the activation.
– We do not know what those actions are. Finland can only guess, but we do not know what the NATO mechanisms are.
“Russia may come up with excuses for the use of chemical weapons”
Secretary-General Stoltenberg said Russia could try to come up with excuses for using chemical weapons in Ukraine, claiming the United States and its allies were planning such an attack.
“We are concerned, in part, because we hear such rhetoric and see that Russia is trying to create some kind of pretext by accusing Ukraine, the United States and NATO allies of preparing chemical and biological weapons,” says Stoltenberg.
The Secretary-General added that Russia has in the past accused others of certain types of action in order to later act on its own accusations.
Stoltenberg will continue as Secretary General
As expected, NATO countries decided to strengthen the organisation’s military presence with new combat forces in Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia.
At the same time, they intend to strengthen Ukraine’s cyber security.
In addition, NATO is providing support to Ukraine in responding to possible attacks by nuclear, chemical and biological weapons by sending defense and medical supplies to Ukraine and providing training in the clean-up and crisis management of the attacks.
Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg will continue as NATO Secretary General for a year longer than planned. The military alliance summit today decided that the Stoltenberg season will not end until the end of September next year.
Stoltenberg’s successor should initially have been elected at NATO’s Madrid summit in the summer.