Fundamental Readjustment

BERLIN (Own report) – Just a few days before the NATO summit opens in Poland’s capital Warsaw, German think tanks are not only pushing for stationing combat troops at Russia’s borders but even for the expansion of the West’s nuclear arsenal. A “revision” of NATO’s “nuclear strategy” is “urgently needed,” because, vis à vis Moscow, for a “credible deterrence” a “nuclear component” is necessary, explained the CDU-affiliated Konrad Adenauer Foundation. The German government’s main military policy think tank, the Federal College for Security Studies (BAKS) is also calling for the transatlantic alliance to reach a “new strategic nuclear consensus,” to contain Russia, the “anti-western power.” The implementation of the missile defense system in NATO’s eastern European member countries is also explained with Moscow’s alleged “aggressivity” and the derived need for “deterrence.” The western military alliance demonstrates its “political capability to take action” against Russia, by its “close involvement” of the formally neutral countries Sweden and Finland “in NATO processes,” according to the author. Besides, both think tanks admit their commitment to militaristic “global crisis management.” According to the Adenauer Foundation, NATO must be able to address and “neutralize threats wherever they arise.” The think tank explicitly considers the “flow of migrants” in this category.

How China’s Silk Road Will Transform Eurasian Infrastructure

The project is more than just a group of new transportation corridors linking China with Europe. In fact, the New Silk Road is a new model of economic partnership in Eurasia.

The initiative includes several transit corridors from western China to Europe which can be divided into three groups – the Northern Route, Sea Route, and the Southern Route.

Russian Fighter Jet Gives US Recon Airplane “Top Gun”-Style Interception

Over the past year, NATO has flooded the media with over 100 reports of its aircraft intercepting Russian spy and warplanes over neutral territory which supposedly were getting too close to native soil for comfort and in urgent need of an escort. Last week, however, the roles were reversed when a US RC-135U reconnaissance aircraft was intercepted in very close proximity by a Russian Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jet over the Baltic Sea near Russia’s Kaliningrad Region.

The Pentagon promptly accused the Russian pilot of coming dangerously close to the US aircraft.

21st Century Warfare (I)

Guess who’s playing a more leading role in NATO:

 

BERLIN/BRUNSSUM (Own report) – The Bundeswehr plays a key role in the current restructuring of NATO’s rapid intervention force. The implementation of a “Very High Readiness Joint Task Force” (VJTF) of between 5,000 and 7,000 troops for future offensive operations, known as “Spearhead,” is an integral element in this process. Half of the troops will be German. NATO’s Allied Joint Force Commander for Northern and Eastern Europe, German Colonel-General Hans-Lothar Domröse is in charge of the creation of the VJTF. According to Domröse, the objective is to get the western military alliance “into shape” for “waging wars in the 21st Century,” which is particularly expressed in the capacity “to be able to control a territorially limited destabilization by elusive subversive enemy forces.” The core of the VJTF will be comprised of the Mechanized Infantry Battalion 371, which disposes of the most modern weapons systems and is stationed in Marienberg (Saxony). The unit has demonstrated its combat readiness in two maneuvers last year. Both maneuvers were to train for combating insurgent separatists – a scenario, the Bundeswehr describes as, “very realistic in the current political environment.”

Germany Slowly Having More Influence on World Events

Germany is the largest economic power in Europe. The country has never been as economically strong, secure and free as it is today. Germany is the fourth-largest economy in the world, and one of the top exporters.

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Stephen Szabo is the executive director of the Transatlantic Academy research center. He wrote a book called “Germany, Russia, and the Rise of Geo-Economics.” He says Germany is now deciding its future.

Ukraine crisis: House of Lords criticises EU and Britain for ‘sleepwalking into crisis’ as Moscow and Nato remain on diplomatic collision course

France and Germany, which had brokered the Minsk accord last week, were yesterday trying to hold together the increasingly fragile ceasefire in Ukraine amid reports that fighting was spreading once again. Kremlin-backed separatists and Cossack fighters triumphantly paraded through the shattered town of Debaltseve, a strategic point they had captured in the past 48 hours.

War by Other Means (II)

BERLIN/KIEV/MOSCOW (Own report) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel is convinced that the West will be “victorious” in the power struggle with Moscow. Merkel told the Munich Security Conference on the weekend that the Ukraine conflict “cannot be won” with military means. That is why “a new way must be found.” Comparing the current power struggle to the Cold War, she reaffirmed, “I am a hundred percent convinced that, with our principles, we will win.” Earlier, Wolfgang Ischinger, Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, had expressed a similar view proposing that a “double strategy” be applied in the West’s power struggle with Russia. According to the journal of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), the power struggle, which currently cannot won with military means, should be returned “from the military to the economic level.” To this effect, Berlin has launched a diplomatic offensive that should lead to talks in Minsk on Wednesday.