MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th December, 2019) Viktor Bondarev, chairman of the Defense and Security Committee in Russia's upper house of parliament said on Wednesday that it was time for the European Union nations to actively develop continental security without the participation of the United States as the latter's role has become increasingly destabilizing.
"It's time for Europeans to more actively work out the issue of ensuring their own security without the participation of the United States. The custodianship of the Americans has become too burdensome, unreliable and hypocritical," the lawmaker said in a statement released by his office.
He emphasized that Washington's insistence that a "Russian threat" is the main source of danger is used as a pretext for the US to deploy military personnel and infrastructure in Europe, which is outside the control of the host nations.
According to him, thanks to NATO, the United States strengthened its position in the arms market, developed its own military-industrial complex, and took control of hydrocarbon deposits and important transit arteries.
"And Europeans, on the contrary, only regressed in all of these respects. I hope that the fragmented demarche of individual NATO members against undivided American dominance will serve as signals for other member states, will turn into some kind of more coherent program of action to ensure a pan-European and national security," the statement read.
The NATO summit held from December 3-4 in London was fraught with tensions and marked by an increasing divergence in views.� US President Donald Trump, most notably, called Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau "two-faced" and canceled a joint press conference on Wednesday after a video surfaced showing Trudeau, along with his UK counterpart Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron, apparently mocking the US president's antics.
The previous day, Boris Johnson raised eyebrows when he left his guests in London and went on a short campaign stop in the English town of Salisbury.
Trump, both as a candidate and president, had repeatedly called NATO obsolete but in London criticized Macron for calling the alliance "brain-dead."�
