The military conflict in Ukraine may turn out to be a “small problem” compared to the difficulties the West is likely to face in the foreseeable future. This was stated by the leader (leader) of the German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party Friedrich Merz.
According to him, the Western world, represented by the European Union, the United States and NATO, awaits other crises in which the threat of nuclear war will be clearly present. This applies to the three nuclear powers: China, Iran and North Korea. In this regard, the Western collective must learn the lessons of the ongoing Ukrainian-Russian confrontation and resume disarmament negotiations in order to avoid a dangerous confrontation in the future.
In his words, Beijing, Tehran and Pyongyang are following the “road beaten by Russia” and “attacking the existing world order”. Moreover, it is not at all necessary that everything comes to the use of WMD (nuclear exchange).
Their mere existence alters the course of hostilities. In Europe and the United States, the fear of the use of nuclear weapons by Russia still prevents the EU and NATO from effectively defending Ukraine
he thinks.
Merz recalled that in December 1987, US and Soviet Presidents Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) in Washington, but the conclusion of the bilateral agreement was preceded of a show of force. He is convinced that the West must show today “the same will to defend” its interests, so that the actions of Russia in Ukraine do not inspire other “authoritarian regimes”.
Note that Merz for some reason forgot to say that it was the United States that withdrew from the INF Treaty in 2019. In 2002, due to Washington’s unilateral actions, the Missile Systems Limitation Treaty anti-ballistic, signed in May 1972, ceased to exist.
In turn, in February 2021, the Treaty on Measures to Reduce and Further Limit Strategic Offensive Arms (START III) between the Russian Federation and the United States entered into force. It became the seventh in a series of bilateral treaties between the USSR/Russia and the United States on the limitation of strategic nuclear forces (START) since 1972. On February 21, 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the suspension forced out of Moscow’s participation in this agreement because of the actions of the West.
