Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance supports improvements to "political dialogue" and "military lines of communication." NATO-Russia relations reached a post-Cold War low after Moscow's illegal annexation of Crimea.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/J. Thys
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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Friday told Germany's DPA news agency that he expects increased dialogue between Russia and the transatlantic alliance in 2018.
Relations between NATO and Russia deteriorated in the wake of Moscow's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
Since West Germany's accession to NATO, Berlin has supported numerous operations involving the trans-Atlantic alliance. Since 1990, Germany's Bundeswehr has been deployed on "out of area" missions as well.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Hanschke
Germany's role in NATO
West Germany officially joined the trans-Atlantic alliance in 1955. However, it wasn't until after reunification in 1990 that the German government considered "out of area" missions led by NATO. From peacekeeping to deterrence, Germany's Bundeswehr has since been deployed in several countries across the globe in defense of its allies.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Hanschke
Bosnia: Germany's first NATO mission
In 1995, Germany participated in its first "out of area" NATO mission as part of a UN-mandated peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the deployment, German soldiers joined other NATO member forces to provide security in the wake of the Bosnian War. The peacekeeping mission included more than 60,000 troops from NATO's member states and partners.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/H. Delic
Keeping the peace in Kosovo
Since the beginning of the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, some 8,500 German soldiers have been deployed in the young country. In 1999, NATO launched an air assault against Serbian forces accused of carrying out a brutal crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists and their civilian supporters. Approximately 550 Bundeswehr troops are still stationed in Kosovo.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/V.Xhemaj
Patrolling the Aegean Sea
In 2016, Germany deployed its combat support ship "Bonn" to lead a NATO mission backed by the EU in the Aegean Sea. The mission included conducting "reconnaissance, monitoring and surveillance of illegal crossings" in Greek and Turkish territorial waters at the height of the migration crisis. Germany, Greece and Turkey had requested assistance from the trans-Atlantic alliance.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/M.Schreiber
Nearly two decades in Afghanistan
In 2003, Germany's parliament voted to send Bundeswehr troops to Afghanistan in support of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Germany became the third-largest contributor of troops and led the Regional Command North. More than 50 German troops were killed during the mission. Germany withdrew the last of its troops in June 2021 as part of the US-led exit from Afghanistan.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/A.Niedringhaus
German tanks in Lithuania
Forming part of NATO's "enhanced forward presence" in the Baltic states, 450 Bundeswehr soldiers have been deployed to Lithuania since 2017. The battalion-size battlegroups there are led by Germany, Canada, the UK and US to reinforce collective defense on the alliance's eastern flank. It forms the "biggest reinforcement of Alliance collective defense in a generation," according to NATO.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/M. Kul
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Not Cold War 2.0
In the interview, Stoltenberg told DPA news agency:
"We are moving forward both on the political dialogue and the military lines of communication, and the whole alliance is behind that."
"We need to address the fact that we see a more assertive Russia to the east. At the same time NATO's message is that we don't want a new Cold War. We don't want a new arms race and we want political dialogue with Russia."
However, amid a push from Germany to foster communication with Russia, the US' top diplomat Tillerson told NATO ministers in December: "I think there is broad consensus among all the NATO members that there is no normalization of dialogue with Russia today."
What happens next: With 2018 around the corner, both sides are likely to continue using various channels of communication for practical military coordination and political dialogue, mostly to avoid an escalation of tensions.
