NATO summit to deal with security and refugee crisis

(Vatican Radio) Foreign Ministers of NATO are gathering today, Thursday, to discuss how the military alliance can expand despite objections from Russia and how it can more effectively deal with security threats and cooperate with the European Union to tackle human-smuggling amid an ongoing refugee crisis. Stefan Bos reports that a key US official has told Vatican Radio and other media that NATO expansion will continue after the expected membership of Montenegro. 

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Speaking during a telephone call, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, Douglas Lute confirmed that NATO would welcome the arrival of its latest member,
the small Balkan state of Montenegro, during the two-day gathering in Brussels. That meeting at NATO's military headquarters will be attended
by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his counterparts from NATO'S 27 other member countries.

Ambassador Lute said the decision to admit Montenegro must now be ratified in each of the alliance's national capitals - a process
that is expected to be concluded later this year.

He did not rule out that two other Balkan nations, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, will join later though he indicated that could take
some years. Ukraine, which has battled Russian-backed separatists in its east since 2014 and Georgia are also trying to join.

WORST TENSIONS

Lute acknowledged that the expansion comes at a time of the worst tensions with Russia since the Cold War, prompted by Moscow's 
annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and it support for Russian-backed separatists in the east. He also cited near military confrontations
such as close encounters between Russian fighter planes and U.S. warships and aircraft.

The ambassador warned that Russia is no longer seen as a partner of NATO. "The partnership that we wanted, that we aspired to with Russia over the last 25 years,
say since the end of the Cold War, that Russia has taken steps that demonstrate that they don't value that partnership," he said.

"And this is increasingly clear with the seizing of Crimea and the destabilizing of southeastern Ukraine.
So it maybe that while we don't consider Russia an enemy, it's also true that we no longer consider Russia a partner. And we make
that judgment based on Russia's demonstrated activities," Ambassador Lute explained.  

He added that during the meeting starting Thursday, NATO will also look into ways to more effectively support the European Union in its ongoing
operations at sea aimed at tackling human smuggling and saving lives. "We ought to be the most natural partners. But we haven't always had success
in finding concrete ways to actually cooperate," he admitted.

REFUGEE CONCERNS

It comes amid mounting concerns within the EU that refugees will use different routes to enter Europe following the closure of Balkan borders
and a recent EU deal with Turkey aimed at stemming the flow of people fleeing war and poverty.

In Hungary alone, officials say close to 11,000 migrants have been detained despite fences this year alone and even more people asked asylum.              
Lute also said that NATO will use the gathering in Brussels to look into security threats further away.

He acknowledged that the United States is open to keep several thousand troops in Afghanistan to focus on Afghan military weaknesses.

That would include building a fledgling air force that has few trained pilots and mechanics and growing abilities to better manage budgets,
logistics and intelligence.

Thursday's and Friday's gathering comes ahead of a major NATO summit in July in Warsaw, Poland.