Obama Assures NATO but Says Force Won’t Be Used in Crimea
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and ALISON SMALE
President Obama said the U.S. and other world powers rejected Russia’s
annexation of Crimea, but he acknowledged that military force would not
be used to return it to Ukraine, which is not a member of NATO.
Obama Assures NATO but Says Force Won’t Be Used in Crimea
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and ALISON SMALE
President Obama said the United States and other world powers rejected
Russia’s annexation of Crimea, but he acknowledged that military force
would not be used to return that region to Ukraine, which is not a
member of NATO.
THE
HAGUE — President Obama vowed on Tuesday that the United States would
use its military to come to the defense of any NATO country that is
threatened, sending a warning to the Russian president, Vladimir V.
Putin, about the consequences of further aggression along the border
with Eastern Europe.
“We
will act in their defense against any threats,” Mr. Obama said at a
news conference in The Hague. “That’s what NATO is all about. When it
comes to a potential military response, that is defined by NATO
membership.”
The president said the United States and other world powers rejected Russia’s annexation of Crimea, a region of Ukraine that voted to secede
on March 16. But he acknowledged that military force would not be used
to return that region to Ukraine, which is not a member of NATO.
“There’s
no expectation that they will be dislodged by force,” Mr. Obama said of
the Russian forces who are in Crimea. He said the world was limited to
trying to use legal and economic pressure against Russia. “It would be
dishonest to suggest that there is a simple solution to resolving what
has already taken place in Crimea,” he said.
But Mr. Obama quickly added, “History has a funny way of moving in twists and turns, and not just in a straight line.”
He also said his plan to let bulk telephone data records
remain in the hands of communications companies would allow the
government to effectively combat terrorism while eliminating concerns
that law enforcement could abuse the database to invade people’s
privacy.
A day after leading a meeting of the industrialized democratic nations known as the G-8 group until Monday, when members voted to oust Russia, Mr. Obama accused Mr. Putin of acting from a position of weakness in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
“The fact that Russia felt compelled to go in militarily,” Mr. Obama said, “indicates less influence, not more.”
The
president said Russia’s buildup of troops on its border with Ukraine
appeared to be “intimidation,” while acknowledging that “Russia has a
right legally to have its troops on its own soil.”
But
Mr. Obama rejected an assertion made during the 2012 presidential
campaign by Mitt Romney, his Republican challenger, that Russia would be
the “No. 1 geopolitical foe” for the United States in the years ahead.
He said Russia was largely a threat to its neighbors, not to the United
States.
He said he continued to be more concerned about “the prospect of a nuclear weapon going off in Manhattan.”
On
the telephone records, Mr. Obama said the proposal he intended to
submit to Congress “ensures that the government is not in possession of
this bulk data.”
He
added, “I’m confident that it allows us to do what is necessary in
order to deal with the dangers of a terrorist attack, and it does so in a
way that deals with the concerns.”
COPY http://international.nytimes.com/
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