Advertise On EU-Digest

Annual Advertising Rates

7/9/16

Poland: ‘No to militarism!’ Anti-war activists mirror NATO meeting in Warsaw with own summit

Anti-war campaigners from the US and Europe slammed NATO’s buildup near Russian borders as they hosted their own conference in the Polish capital, Warsaw, where a summit of the leaders of the NATO military bloc began on Friday.

The three-day ‘Anti-NATO Summit’ brings together activists from Poland, the Czech Republic, France, the US, Belgium, Britain and other countries under the motto: “No to War! No to NATO! No to militarism!”

The counter-forum will discuss a range of topics, including the growth of military spending, the expansion of nuclear arsenals, relations between NATO and the EU, the European refugee crisis and the deployment of US missile defense components on European territory.

An anti-war rally to protest the opening of new NATO bases around the globe is also scheduled to take place on Saturday as part of the event.

The leader of the Polish Stop the War Initiative, which was one of the organizers of the anti-war  summit, stressed that Warsaw has been arming itself in every way possible – increasing the number of troops and military spending – since joining NATO in 1999.

“On top of that, we have plans of deploying NATO bases” in Poland, Philip Ilkovsky told Russian media.

According to Ilkovsky, the growth of military arsenals and construction of new bases would lead to “increased tensions between countries, including relations with Russia, which wouldn’t make our world a safer place. On the contrary, the threat will only increase.”

“Neither the Russians nor the Poles need the current arms race because in case of war, ordinary people will suffer, not the people who are making the decisions behind a tall fence at the NATO summit,” the activist said, as cited by TASS.

A two-day summit of the leaders of the 28-member NATO alliance, including Barack Obama, Angela Merkel and others, kicked off in the Polish capital on Friday, focusing on boosting security in the eastern part of the bloc. 

Read more: ‘No to militarism!’ Anti-war activists mirror NATO meeting in Warsaw with own summit — RT News

No comments: