[Text/Observer Network Wang Kaiwen] After Ukraine accused the Russian army of creating the "Buccha incident", the United States and Britain launched a new round of sanctions on Russia, and European countries also began to expel Russian diplomats on a large scale. The relationship between the West and Russia is becoming increasingly tense.
According to CNN (CNN), on the evening of April 6 local time, Liz Truss, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Federal and Development, told NATO countries that the era of contact with Russia has ended.
CNN report screenshot
report said that according to a statement from the British Foreign Ministry, Tras said at a dinner with the foreign ministers of NATO countries on the 6th: "The NATO-Russia Basic Agreement is dead, and now it is time to abandon the outdated way to deal with Russia."
The NATO-Russia Basic Agreement was signed in Paris in May 1997. According to this document, Russia and NATO do not regard each other as opponents, and the two sides will seek to establish a "new type of bilateral relationship." Based on this, the two sides also established the Russian-NATO joint permanent council, namely the "19+1 mechanism".
Tras said: "The era of contact with Russia is over. We need a new way to (defend) European security based on resilience, defense and deterrence."
CNN said that according to the statement of the British Foreign Ministry,Tras stressed on the 6th that NATO cannot allow a "safety vacuum" to appear on the eastern border of the alliance. It should reconsider support for countries such as Georgia , Moldova , Swedish and Finland .
Tras also urged her NATO colleagues to strengthen sanctions on Russia and arm Ukraine to "act quickly and decisively (act) … to ensure the failure of Putin ".
On April 6th local time, the foreign ministers of the five NATO countries (NATO Quint) held a meeting, with the first on the right being Trass Source: Trass Twitter
On April 6th to 7th local time, the NATO Foreign Ministers' Meeting will be held in Brussels, Belgium. This time, the United States, Britain and other countries have launched a new round of sanctions on Russia. According to a report released by the British Foreign Ministry on the 6th, the content of the new sanctions against Russia include the complete freezing of the assets of the Russian Federal Savings Bank and the Moscow Credit Bank; the termination of all UK investments in Russia; the UK will stop importing coal and oil from Russia by the end of 2022, and end the import of natural gas as soon as possible, etc.
At the same time, due to the "Bucha Incident", more than a dozen EU countries began to expel Russian diplomats on a large scale. According to statistics from the British " Guardian " on April 5, since this week, EU countries have expelled more than 200 Russian diplomats and embassy staff. In addition to more than 100 people expelled after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, at least 325 diplomats on Russia have been expelled by the EU, and the number is expected to rise.
The Guardian pointed out on the 7th that although Tras said that the era of contact between the West and Russia has ended, so far, the UK has not yet been synchronized with EU countries to expel Russian diplomats.
Screenshot of the Guardian
Report analysis said that the current UK may need to spend more time and diplomatic resources to monitor and analyze Russia. Some British diplomats said that expulsion of Russian diplomats will only lead to the Russian side's "tit for tooth" expulsion.
After the 2018 nerve agent attack, the UK expelled 23 Russian diplomats. As a countermeasure, Russia also expelled more than 50 British diplomats. The report wrote: "As we all know, the previous expulsion operation has caused the UK to lose many experts in political intelligence and research."
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