NATO’s Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, spoke out against the comparisons being drawn between NATO’s intervention in Kosovo back in 1999 and the current tensions in Ukraine.
“It is wrong to say that the breakup of former Yugoslavia began with NATO’s intervention. NATO only entered in order to put half on crimes committed against Kosovo. At the time, Yugoslavia had just disintegrated,” said Stoltenberg, when asked by journalists in Brussels whether or not NATO’s intervention back in 1999, without a formal resolution by the United Nations Security Council, is responsible for Yugoslavia’s breakup.
The airstrikes led by NATO began on March 24, 1999, and lasted for 78 days. This military intervention is what led to the end of the Kosovo War.
Stoltenberg made these comments after the meeting that officials from NATO member states held in Brussels, with Russian diplomats, to talk about the current tension in Ukraine.
Moscow has sent around 100,000 troops at the border with Ukraine, which Western powers are seeing as a threat that could lead to a possible invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
However, Kremlin has repeatedly tried to convince NATO that there won’t be any invasions but that they are asking NATO for a guarantee that they’ll stop their expansion in Eastern Europe.
The Russian government has also asked NATO to withdraw its troops from Eastern-European countries, which border with Russia.
While discussing these requests, Stoltenberg said that “Based on article 5 of its statute, if one of the nations that are part of the NATO alliance gets attacked, it is considered an attack on all NATO members, which means that each member state will be protected by all other members”.
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