NATO does not give Russia assurances about the deployment of nuclear weapons in the new member

“Each country is free to deploy or not deploy nuclear weapons. We are not talking about setting some principled limit on possible coalition actions,” Grand said in an interview with Swiss radio RTS.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (centre) at the application ceremony of Finland and Sweden in May in Belgium Reuters

In addition, Deputy Secretary-General NATO that each member state has the sovereign right to decide on this issue. Therefore, in the current situation, he considers it unnecessary to give a guarantee to Russia regarding the state of the Russian Federation. military of NATO in the region.

Grand’s statement came as Russia expressed concern about the Nordic countries Finland and Sweden applying to join NATO and possibly deploying nuclear weapons on their territory.

However, the accession process is currently plagued with objections from Turkey. Ankara accused the two Nordic countries of backing Kurdish groups banned in Turkey and made demands such as cutting ties with these groups, handing over some suspects and lifting restrictions on arms exports to Turkey. Turkey, according to RT station.

Mr. Grand expects this difference to be resolved before the NATO summit at the end of June.

These two neutral countries made the decision after Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine accused Kyiv of failing to implement the Minsk agreement on the resolution of the conflict in the eastern Donbass region.

Russia also demanded that Ukraine declare its neutrality and never join NATO. Mr. Grand said that Ukraine’s inclusion in the bloc was not on the agenda at the moment, and stressed that the conflict must be resolved before Ukraine can decide for itself its place in the European security architecture.