“There are no signs that Russia is planning to attack any of the NATO members. I don’t think there is a direct threat. The problem is that Russia’s ambitions extend beyond Ukraine. We know that, so the alliance as a whole needs to become more prepared,” the admiral said.
At the same time, the alliance has agreed to consider Russia as a threat, and accordingly the alliance is changing its military plans, refocusing its attention on collective defense. These plans were agreed by NATO at the summit in Vilnius, and the work is related to “making sure that we can defend ourselves against the threat”, said Bauer.
According to Ukraine’s experience, Russia does not attack directly, and even before the large-scale invasion in February 2022, Russia supported the separatists. When asked whether NATO would consider something like that a threat if something similar happened in one of the Baltic states, Bauer answered that according to Article 3 of the NATO agreement, each state must be able to defend itself.
“If something like this were to happen in the country, then it is the responsibility of the respective country to ensure security. If we are talking about hybrid operations, for example, Latvia will have to react to it. Of course, if Latvia wants to start consultations with other member states, as provided for in Article 4, it is possible by presenting the identified threat. We will talk about it and agree on how we proceed as an alliance. I would like to note that cyber activity from another country is also a sufficient reason to trigger Article 5. Article 5 can be triggered not only in the event of a direct attack,” Bauer emphasized.
