“The state of the NATO Alliance today is remarkably strong, possibly the strongest it's ever been,” declared U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith in a recent interview.
“We have a moment in Alliance history where the Alliance is being challenged by a war not so far from NATO's territory. But the ways in which the Allies have come together over the last year has been nothing short of remarkable,” she said.
Allies have activated their defenses in multiple ways, said Ambassador Smith:
“The Allies have come together first and foremost to reinforce NATO's eastern flank to make sure that its members in Eastern Europe have what they need to feel secure and safe in this moment. Secondly, individual Allies have come together to support the Ukrainian people and support the Ukrainian military forces. And third, the trans-Atlantic Allies are united in their efforts to apply maximum pressure on Moscow.”
“NATO's support for Ukraine is robust and it's just as strong as it was on the day that Russia started this war”, said Ambassador Smith:
“I think some folks out there, particularly President Putin, expected Western support for Ukraine or NATO's support for Ukraine to somehow trail off. But that's absolutely not the case. Allies have come together just in recent days to restate and reaffirm their strong support for Ukraine. Allies fundamentally understand what's at stake. They understand that the Ukrainian military forces are not only fighting to defend their own territory, but Ukrainian military forces are fighting to protect the values that NATO's Allies hold dear and that they want to protect as well.”
“I see no sign of Alliance unity coming undone,” declared Ambassador Smith. “I see no NATO Allies running for the exit. Quite the contrary. What I see are Allies that are in it for as long as it takes, and they will continue to support both the people of Ukraine and those military forces inside Ukraine that are defending Ukraine's territorial sovereignty.”
