CND is pleased to concur with many proposals highlighted in a new report which discusses the role Nato plays in growing tensions between the West and Russia
The Task Force on Cooperation in Greater Europe, whose members include former UK Defence Secretaries Des Browne and Malcom Rifkind, has called for the Nato-Russia Council to be convened to decide on new rules of military engagement. The group hopes the rules will reduce the likelihood of military accidents or a full-scale confrontation.
The group’s position paper Avoiding War in Europe states that reasons for the breakdown of trust between the sides include the enlargement of Nato, missile defence, as well as “incompatible accounts of what has happened in Ukraine and why.”
CND campaigns for Britain to leave Nato and opposes its expansion. Nato, rather than scaling back after the collapse of the Soviet Union, has operated as an interventionist military alliance, which also flouts the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and promotes the development of missile defence systems.
The report offers an all too rare public acknowledgement of how Nato stokes international conflict, and its calls for negotiations to avoid conflict are ones we should support.