US President Donald Trump issued a forceful name for all NATO members to halt their purchases of Russian oil, saying such a transfer would assist finish the lethal battle in Ukraine.
Speaking by way of his Truth Social platform on September 13, Trump criticized some NATO international locations for persevering with to purchase Russian oil, describing it as “stunning” and warning that it “tremendously weakens your negotiating place and bargaining energy over Russia.”
The assertion comes only a day after NATO launched its new army operation, Eastern Sentry, designed to strengthen and shield the alliance’s jap flank in response to Russian drone incursions into Polish airspace this week.
Trump went on to suggest that NATO international locations impose secondary tariffs of 50-One hundred pc on China for its purchases of Russian petroleum, with the suggestion that these tariffs be lifted as soon as the struggle concludes.
The US president added he is able to impose “main” sanctions on Russian oil if NATO members do the identical.
Turkey is the third-largest purchaser of Russian oil globally, whereas Hungary and Slovakia proceed to purchase Russian oil, primarily by way of pipeline by means of the southern department of the Druzhba pipeline beneath an EU exemption.
NATO’s new Eastern Sentry operation consists of deployments and army changes by a number of NATO allies to discourage additional Russian aggression and improve collective protection alongside the jap border.
“The key to that is a wholly new protection design,” US General Alexus Grynkewich, NATO’s supreme allied commander Europe, informed a joint information convention with NATO chief Mark Rutte in Brussels on September 12.
Grynkewich stated the brand new tools would come with French Rafale fighter jets, Danish F-16s, a frigate, and ground-based protection programs that had beforehand been pledged to the area.
He informed reporters the army alliance would defend each inch of its territory.
