The president of Baltic state Lithuania said Saturday that NATO's landmark decision to reinforce its vulnerable eastern flank created the right conditions to renew dialogue with Russia.
Dalia Grybauskaite, known as Lithuania's "Iron Lady" for her hard line on Moscow, told AFP she was "softening" after NATO on Friday endorsed its biggest military revamp since the end of the Cold War in response to the Ukraine conflict.
The Western defence alliance committed itself to sending four battalions of around 1,000 troops each to Poland and the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which fear Russia may make further moves in its Soviet-era backyard.
"I am softening. Absolutely, because we have received whatever we asked for at this stage," Grybauskaite told AFP on the margins of NATO's landmark summit in Warsaw.
"A few years ago we had been alone talking about the threats. Now all countries realise and they are evaluating it very realistically. So now I am confident we do not need to repeat anymore what Russia's Mr. Putin is capable of."
Known as Lithuania's "Iron Lady" for her steely will, Grybauskaite added that "NATO is starting to become a real defence organisation...(it) is coming out from its offices and paper plans to the field.
"But in parallel, we are opening and keeping the channels of communication with Russia. We are not closing ourselves by an iron wall, and it is also saying that we are united and strong and because of that we can be open, not afraid and talk with you."
NATO is set to hold talks with Russia on July 13 at ambassador level, its second meeting this year after a near two-year freeze following Moscow's annexation of Crimea and intervention in Ukraine. On Saturday NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said leaders at the summit "stand together" on their twin-track policy of deterrent measures and dialogue with Russia.
French President Francois Hollande went further on Friday, saying that Russia should not be considered a threat but rather a partner. France and several other NATO allies such as Germany and Italy have pressed for the alliance to keep its lines of communication with Moscow open so as to avoid getting stuck in a Cold War-style stand-off.
But central European heavyweight Poland has insisted that any talks with Moscow should be focussed solely on its "withdrawal" from Ukrainian soil. "With Russia we can only discuss when and how they are going to withdraw from the occupied territories," in Ukraine, Polish Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz said.
