NATO Declares It Will Never Withdraw Troops from Certain Countries

NATO will never agree to withdraw troops from countries that joined the alliance after 1997, as this would make them second-class members of the alliance. This was stated by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in an interview with Canadian CBC television, which aired on Sunday, as reported by TASS.

“Of course, we cannot agree that we should not have NATO troops in all the countries that joined the alliance from 1997 onwards. This would effectively mean that half of our members would not be able to be defended by NATO troops. At that point, they would be second-class members of NATO, and we will never do that,” he said.