Russia 'uneasy' with NATO's presence in Baltics says EU chief
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On Wednesday, the latest defence minister meeting will be held by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) in Brussels, with UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace due to be among those in attendance. The meeting will bring together representatives from Nato members over two days of scheduled talks, with the topic of a potential Russian invasion into Ukraine high on the agenda.
What is Nato?
Formed shortly after the conclusion of World War Two in 1949, Nato initially was made up of 12 founding members.
These included the UK, US, Canada and France.
During the event of an armed attack against any one member state, other Nato allies will come to their aid.
Originally, the aim of the alliance was to counter the threat of post-war Russian expansion in Europe.
The Soviet Union responded, in 1955, with the creation of its own military partnership – made up of eastern European communist countries – called the Warsaw Pact.
Since the collapse of Soviet Russia, a number of former Warsaw Pact members have opted to join forces with Nato – such as Albania and Poland.
So, which countries make up the 30 members of Nato?
The following countries officially are regarded as members of Nato:
- Albania
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Canada
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Italy
- Latvia
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- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Montenegro
- Netherlands
- North Macedonia
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Turkey
- UK
- US
What will Nato defence ministers discuss?
Nato’s defence meeting is likely to talk about Tuesday’s development, which saw Russia announce that it was withdrawing some units of troops from its border near to Ukraine.
Despite amassing 100,000 soldiers at various points near to its ex-Soviet neighbour, Russia has denied that it has any intention of attacking.
Ahead of the meeting, Nato’s General Secretary, Jens Stoltenberg, said rather than a withdrawal, Russia was building up its forces on Ukraine’s border, with “more troops on the way”.
He said: “So far we have not seen any de-escalation on the ground.
“On the contrary, it appears that Russia continues the military build-up and we have not received a response to a written document or written proposals that we sent to Russia on the January 26 outlining the topics and items where Nato allies are ready to sit down and discuss with Russia to try to find a political path forward.”
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