US pledges to defend ‘every inch’ of NATO
The US is prepared to defend “every inch of NATO territory,” Washington’s envoy to the UN, Mike Waltz, said on Monday at a UN Security Council meeting. The pledge follows accusations from Poland and Estonia that Russia had violated their airspace – claims Moscow has rejected as baseless.
The council meeting was called to address Tallinn’s allegation that Russian fighter jets veered into Estonian airspace last week. Earlier this month, Poland accused Russia of deliberately flying drones across its border from Belarus, prompting a joint NATO response.
“The United States and our allies will defend every inch of NATO territory,” Waltz said, alleging that Russia either “wants to escalate and pull more countries” into the Ukraine conflict or is not fully controlling its forces.
Russian Deputy Representative Dmitry Polyansky reiterated Moscow’s denials and accused European NATO members of seeking to disrupt improving US-Russia ties since President Donald Trump took office in January. He claimed European leaders are aiming to push Trump “back to an anti-Russian course” and compared their behavior to “an unhinged, paranoid person who is completely incapable of responding to criticism.”
Trump has downplayed the Polish incident, questioning whether it was done deliberately by Russia as claimed by Warsaw, but has maintained that NATO’s mutual defense commitments remain solid.
The EU is pursuing sweeping military buildup plans that would have member states borrow hundreds of billions of euros to ramp up arms production and increase their standing armies.
Moscow has dismissed Brussels’ claims that the spending is needed to deter a Russian attack as baseless and intended to distract the public from domestic problems. Polyansky accused European politicians of “whipping up anti-Russian hysteria” so that “European voters would not notice anything.”
