Ursula von der Leyen
Germany is interested in resolving differences with Russia, but from a position of strength. This was stated by the Minister of defense, Ursula von der Leyen in Strasbourg at the session of the European Parliament Committee on foreign Affairs and Subcommittee on security and defence, reports on Tuesday, June 13, TASS reported.
“Our position is that we want reasonable relations with Russia, but we know that it must happen from a position of strength. It should be clear that we are interested in conflict resolution at the negotiating table”, — said the head of the defense Department on the issue of the extent coming from Moscow threat.
She added that “the Germans for 40 years benefited from the Alliance [NATO]”. “We know what it’s like when the Eastern boundary is protected. We believe that the time has come to provide this protection to our Eastern neighbours and thus to pay the debt,” concluded von der Leyen.
Moscow’s relations with the countries-members of NATO escalated in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea to Russia. In 2016 and early 2017, the Alliance began to place in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland multinational battalions. Some of them are including soldiers from Germany.
Moscow has repeatedly stated that it does not threaten any country that is a member of the Alliance. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pointed out that NATO is using this as an excuse to build weapons near the Russian borders.