BRUSSELS, (Reuters) – NATO suspended all practical cooperation with Russia yesterday in protest at its annexation of Crimea, and ordered military planners to draft measures to strengthen its defences and reassure nervous Eastern European countries.
Foreign ministers from the 28-nation, U.S.-led alliance were meeting for the first time since the Russian occupation of Ukraine’s Crimea region touched off the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Russia’s actions meant there could be no “business as usual”.
“So today, we are suspending all practical cooperation with Russia, military and civilian,” he told a news conference.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said NATO’s future relationship with Russia would depend, among other things, on whether Russia started withdrawing troops from the Ukrainian border.
Ministers also ordered military commanders to draw up plans for reinforcing NATO’s defences to shore up confidence among the alliance’s Eastern European members, including former Soviet republics in the Baltics, that NATO is ready to defend them.
