NATO member states will debate this week at its summit in Vilnius, Lithuania whether Sweden and Ukraine should be permitted into the alliance, but retired Brigadier Gen. Anthony Tata told Newsmax Sunday that he leans toward not allowing new members until the matter of the required spending each nation must provide is tightened.
"Discussion about membership is important, and I lean toward no new members until we tighten up all of the 2% spending that every member nation must provide as opposed to taking on new members, particularly Ukraine, which is in the middle of a war right now, and would de facto trigger Article 5, an attack against one is an attack against all," Tata, who appeared on Newsmax's "Wake Up America" with retired Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, commented.
If Ukraine is admitted, that will "force a vote on whether or not we're all going to put boots on the ground," which is what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants, Tata added.
Meanwhile, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed Saturday that "without a doubt, Ukraine deserves to be in NATO," and Tata said he finds his position "puzzling."
"I think he's trying to have it both ways with Russia and with NATO, and certainly he doesn't support Sweden, but he supports Ukraine, which I think is perplexing," said Tata. "He's in such an interesting position all the time when it comes to international negotiations, and he's a very savvy player, and he likes to play both sides of every side."
Meanwhile, Ukraine has accused Russia of planting explosives at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, with Russia accusing Ukraine of planning to sabotage the plant, and Shaffer agreeing that there is a dangerous situation at hand.
"Any time you hear the word nuclear in that region people take notice, obviously, [because of] what happened in Chernobyl," he said. "You just had the foreign minister of Russia commenting on how they're looking at nuclear issues regarding weapons. This is no small issue."
He added that the nuclear plant is being brought up because of the Vilnius summit, as "both sides want to put pressure on NATO to do something."
Tata also discussed the news that cluster munitions would become part of a U.S. package of military equipment to Ukraine and said that is a concern because Russian President Vladimir Putin could argue that they are weapons of mass destruction.
"He could use it as a rationalization for his move of tactical nukes into Belarus," said Tata. "From an information warfare standpoint, he could absolutely leverage cluster munitions."
Cluster munitions are weapons that open in the air and release bomblets that become dispersed over a large area to wreak destruction on multiple targets at once.
"While they are effective, they're effective against everybody, civilians, women, and children," Tata said. "When you dropped cluster munitions in an area they don't go away…if Ukraine is going to use these, they have to use them in very strategic ways that do not impact on civilian populations."
The Russians have used cluster munitions already, showing the danger of such weapons, said Tata.
A year ago, the White House characterized Russia's use of cluster munitions as a war crime, but "desperation" has changed matters, said Shaffer.
"We're down to scraping the bottom of the barrel for armament," he said. "The real reason is we have nothing left…we have depleted our wartime stocks to support the Ukrainians, and this is all we got left."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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