Hagel: NATO to rethink relations with Russia
WASHINGTON - US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Friday that NATO should reconsider its relationship with Russia in light of its incursion into Ukraine, which should bury the idea that the end of the Cold War brought permanent peace to Europe.
"Russia's actions in Ukraine shatter that myth and usher in bracing new realities," Hagel said in a speech that captured the Obama administration's deepening concern that decades of effort to draw Russia closer to the West may be failing.
Hagel made no mention of boosting American troop levels in Europe; his focus was on how NATO can become better prepared to deal with a security landscape that is being reshaped by Russia's annexation of Crimea and its moves in eastern Ukraine. (AP)
