R3 A3: 2% of GDP towards a safer Europe

Global events once again confirm the need for a strong security policy.
Unfortunately, soft, democratic policies have not worked, as a result of which
we have in recent years seen armed aggressions, acts of terrorism, and the
outbreak of full-scale war in Europe. This once again underlines the need for a
clear response, solidarity on the issue of collective security and peace, and a
strong position on defense and security policy, as well as the evolution of the
NATO alliance.

For years the Baltic States and Poland have raised their concerns about a
potential Russian invasion, which were mostly ignored and dismissed as paranoia.
After the terroristic and fascist Russian regime, led by Vladimir Putin, annexed
Crimea and the de facto occupation of the Donbas and Luhansk regions in 2014,
the Baltic States and Poland increased their military spending to at least 2% of
the GDP. Following this, however, the majority of NATO member states,
particularly those situated further away from Russia, there were no discussions
of increasing their military spending to 2% of their GDP as mandated by NATO
statutes. For example, Germany has pledged to increase their spending to 2% of
its GDP until 2031, which is way past the 2024 deadline.

While Western countries continued flirting with Vladimir Putin just to continue
importing Russian fossil fuels, those countries which had previously been
exposed to the horrors of Russian imperialism, started preparing for the worst,
while continuing to support Ukraine from Russia's war against them.

Moreover, Germany kept building the Nord Stream 2 fossil gas pipe from Russia to
Germany, while Ukraine, Poland, and the Baltic States were opposed to it due to
increased Russian influence. The partial Russian occupation of Ukraine had
almost completely disappeared from the public eye until Russia started yet
another invasion in early 2022.

Furthermore, many NATO and EU countries continued to export their weapons to
Russia after the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014. Germany and France
exported weapons worth more than 270 million euros. France's exports to Russia
even increased significantly in 2015, a year after Russia annexed the Crimea
peninsula. Czechia, Bulgaria, Italy, Slovakia, Finland, Spain, and Croatia also
continued to export weapons, spare parts, and vehicles to the Russian military.

The Ukrainian resistance held up against the relentless terroristic onslaught of
Russian occupiers. Despite Ukraine’s heroic resistance, without the influx of
new weaponry, Ukraine cannot hold. It is thus necessary that Ukraine will be
supplied with weapons to continue its counter-offensives against the Russian war
criminals. Sadly, a big part of NATO countries, especially Germany, are
unwilling to aid Ukraine. Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine,
Russian troops have launched missile and air attacks on military and civilian
infrastructure. People around the world asked NATO member states and Ukraine-
friendly countries to close the airspace over Ukraine to improve air and missile
attacks and protect civilian cities in Ukraine. However, this request was
ignored with the argument “if NATO closes the skies over Ukraine, it will
consider the alliance's step into the war”

The lack of a collective regulatory mechanism has allowed individual NATO
members to exploit the alliance for their own interests, which in turn has
resulted in criminal actions in the Middle East and other counties. Now this has
led to weak support for Ukraine, provoking a difficult political and security
situation for countries in Eastern Europe, the Baltics, and the Nordic
countries, which are close to Ukraine and the Russian Federation

The Baltic States and Poland have been the biggest supporters of Ukraine during
this invasion, this may be attributed to their military budget exceeding the 2%
baseline set by NATO. Estonia has provided Ukraine military support of about
0.8% of their GDP, Latvia 0.7%, Poland 0.2%, and Lithuania – 0.1%, while Germany
has given only 0.01% of their GDP in military aid. This means the Baltic States
and Poland are the 4 biggest contributors of military aid to Ukraine in NATO.

Even though FYEG acknowledges the war crimes committed by NATO countries in the
Middle East and in other countries, we call for the strengthening of NATO as a
defensive organization to protect its eastern flank. Therefore, we call for NATO
member states to increase their military spending to 2%, not only to assist
Ukraine in its war against the war criminals and terrorists from Russia but also
to properly protect countries that are under the biggest threat of Russian
imperialism. Moreover, FYEG supports Finland and Sweden’s wishes to join NATO,
as that will make the Baltic Sea region safer.

FYEG understands that NATO as an intergovernmental alliance is an organization
that has the power to defend countries from Russian (or any other) aggression
and the possibility of a full-scale world war, prevent the threat of a nuclear
attack that would cause irreparable disaster to the world, and thereafter
control the non-use of weapons of mass destruction. In an unstable world
situation, threatened by full-scale war, we must use all mechanisms to ensure
peace and global collective security

For now, NATO is not capable of providing peace and of reacting in an adequate
way to threats to global security, therefore we demand the creation of a strong
institution in the alliance system that focuses exclusively on conflict
prevention and resolution as well as ensuring peace and global security. That's
why we are also in favor of fair regulatory mechanisms for NATO that will
prevent the USA or any other country from taking one-sided decisions, as well as
ensuring democratic ways of resolving internal problems and conflicts. We
believe that a strong structure and regulatory mechanisms will also enable us to
control the level of militarization of countries and avoid subsequent wars and
armed conflicts. One of the core values of the Greens is non-violence, so we
believe that with the great threat of aggression from a Russian (or any other)
imperialist government, we must first defend peace in all countries.