By Eliza Popova
Mark Rutte noted that the Alliance's actions should be proportional. He clearly outlined two possible scenarios. "We do not need to knock Russian planes just because they entered our airspace. We need a proportional answer," the Secretary General said. "If the aircraft is a threat, we have the authority to knock it down. If the aircraft is not threatened, you are not going to knock it down, then we will carefully remove it from our airspace," Rutte said.
Rutte confirmed this opinion in response to the questions of parliament members from the Baltic countries. They called for more decisive action, including attack on violators. The Secretary -General explained this position by the power of the Alliance itself. "And we are much stronger than the Russians. We do not need to knock Russian planes, because they enter our airspace," Rutte said.
He repeated that the destruction of the aircraft would be only an extreme measure in the event of an obvious threat. Rutte gave a hypothetical example for comparison. He noted that the weak side could act differently. "If we were weak, you could think:" Okay, we must show them immediately that they invade our airspace every time we knock them down, "the Secretary General explained. However, in his opinion, the real power of NATO allows to act restrained and weighted. such invasion, "said Mark Rutte.
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