[NTD, Beijing, September 21, 2022]NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday (September 21) that despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order to mobilize 300,000 reserve troops, He will not win the war. Stoltenberg called Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons “dangerous and reckless rhetoric.”
Stoltenberg said in an interview with Reuters that Putin’s speech on partial mobilization of the Russian people was Russia’s first mobilization since World War II to escalate the war and pay more lives. He said the move proved Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 was a “misjudgment”.
Putin made a nationally televised address on Wednesday, in addition to calling up 300,000 reserve troops, four regions occupied by Russia will hold a “referendum” on whether to join Russia, and hinted that he is prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia.
“If the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will use all available means to protect our people, it is not a bluff,” Putin said, adding that Russia has “a lot of weapons to deal with.”
Stoltenberg said NATO would remain calm and “not make the kind of reckless and dangerous nuclear rhetoric that President Putin has done.” Stoltenberg added, “President Putin’s speech shows that the war did not go according to President Putin’s plan. He made a big miscalculation.”
“The recruitment of more troops will escalate the conflict. It will mean more suffering, more loss of life – Ukrainian lives, but also Russian lives.”
Putin’s speech comes as casualties and defeats mount for Russian troops, which were driven out of the northeast by Ukraine’s counteroffensive this month and stranded in the south.
NATO chief on ‘the only way to end war’
Stoltenberg said that despite the ill-equipped Russian military and lack of proper command and control, it is difficult to see an end to the conflict anytime soon as long as Russia does not accept Ukraine as a sovereign and independent state.
“The only way to end this war is to prove that President Putin will not win on the battlefield. When he realizes that, he has to sit down and negotiate a reasonable deal with Ukraine,” he said.
Stoltenberg says NATO members have provided Ukraine with unprecedented support; as NATO is “long-term” prepared to deal with Putin, the alliance is now in close dialogue with the defense industry to stockpile arms and ammunition .
NATO Secretary General: China is not NATO’s opponent
Stoltenberg said Sino-Russian cooperation and China’s rhetoric against NATO expansion since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine showed why Western defense alliances should view Beijing as a security challenge. But he does not see China as an “adversary” to NATO.
“In short, this adds to the importance of NATO allies standing together and realizing that China is the security challenge we need to face today and in the future,” Stoltenberg said.
He pointed to China’s “coercive behavior” in the South China Sea and its neighbors and “the way it violates basic human rights.”
(Comprehensive report by reporter Chen Beichen/responsible editor: Lin Qing)
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