The world is more dangerous today than it has been in a generation, the head of
Nato
has said, days before the mobilisation of an estimated 100,000 Russian
troops on the EU’s eastern borders, and as a nuclear crisis grows on the
Korean peninsula.
Jens Stoltenberg, secretary general of the military alliance, said
the sheer number of converging threats was making the world increasingly
perilous.
Asked in a Guardian interview whether he had known a more dangerous
time in his 30-year career, Stoltenberg said: “It is more unpredictable,
and it’s more difficult because we have so many challenges at the same
time.
“We have proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in
North Korea,
we have terrorists, instability, and we have a more assertive Russia,”
Stoltenberg said during a break from visiting British troops stationed
in Estonia. “It is a more dangerous world.”
From next Thursday, over six days, Russian and Belarusian troops will
take part in what is likely to be Moscow’s largest military exercise
since the cold war. An estimated 100,000 soldiers, security personnel
and civilian officials, will be active around the Baltic Sea, western
Russia, Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, without the supervision required under international agreement.
On the other side of the world, in the face of local protests, the
South Korean government has deployed the controversial US Thaad missile
defence system as it looked to counter potential future attacks from
North Korea, which recently launched a ballistic missile over Japan, threatened
the US Pacific territory of Guam and
tested a possible thermonuclear device.
Donald Trump has threatened to unleash “fire and fury” on the North
Koreans should further threats be made against the US, and kept up the
threat on Thursday, saying he is building up US military power.
“It’s been tens of billions of dollars more in investment. And each
day new equipment is delivered – new and beautiful equipment, the best
in the world, the best anywhere in the world, by far,” Trump said.
“Hopefully we’re not going to have to use it on North Korea. If we do
use it on North Korea, it will be a very sad day for North Korea.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/08/world-most-dangerous-generation-nato-chief-jens-stoltenberg