NATO member states should not tolerate deliberate acts of hybrid war, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said on Sept. 5, adding that Washington will stand by affected nations as they take steps to deal with these threats.
Whitaker highlighted the attempted drone attack on Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany last month, which Berlin blamed on Moscow, as being “more concerning” than other incidents faced by members of the alliance, largely along its eastern flank.
“If we can identify who’s doing it—which Germany did—we make sure we express strongly that is unacceptable, and we will not tolerate it,” Whitaker said on the sidelines of a business conference in Italy.
Whitaker added that NATO members must be prepared and vigilant, and deliver a strong message when such actions challenge them, saying that critical infrastructure could be at risk and should be monitored by national authorities.
He also said that the nations affected should take the lead in responding to such acts of hybrid warfare, but the United States would lend aid to member states dealing with them.
The American envoy’s comments come amid heightened tensions between European nations, particularly Germany, and Russia.
On Sept. 6, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Berlin’s accusation that Moscow was behind the incident at Leipzig/Halle Airport is “basically the beginning of a real war.”
“They kicked out the consulate general from Bonn, announced that they had terminated the agreement. They’re closing the Russian House in Berlin. I remember that before the start of World War II, or rather the Great Patriotic War, the Germans also closed their diplomatic missions,” Lavrov told Russian state-owned outlet Vesti.
“I don’t think I even need to explain it much. They want war again.”
In response to the closure of its consulate in Bonn and the Russian House in Berlin, Moscow announced that three branches of the Goethe-Institut, a German nonprofit organization that promotes cultural exchange, would be closed in Russia.
On Sept. 7, German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said that the country’s freedom was under threat from Moscow’s drones as well as by Russophile domestic lawmakers.
Speaking at an event in the southern German state of Bavaria, following the victory of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Dobrindt said peaceful coexistence in the nation is threatened externally by Russian drones and internally by “Moscow’s ideological low-flyers in our parliaments,” German media outlet Zeit reported.
The AfD has been accused by its opponents, including Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government in Berlin, of being overly friendly toward Russia and of long opposing Germany’s support for Ukraine.
Ulrich Siegmund, AfD’s lead candidate for governor of Saxony-Anhalt, told The Epoch Times after his party’s victory on Sept. 6 that “a new era is dawning here, an era in which people are saying very clearly, enough is enough.”
Siegmund added that voters wanted fundamental political change and a government that once again makes policy in the interests of its own people and country.
He also said he wanted to “get along with Russia.”
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