NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was in Berlin yesterday to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel one more time before she retires, and to address the German Atlantic Association “NATO Talk” Conference 2021. During that speech he suggested, apparently in response to an audience question, that should the German government that’s expected to replace that of Merkel decide to opt out of NATO’s nuclear sharing program, then the estimated 20 B61 nuclear gravity bombs that are currently stored at the German Büchel air base could be moved to another country—closer to Russia. “Of course, it’s up to Germany to decide whether the nuclear arms will be deployed in this country, but there’s an alternative to this; the nuclear arms may easily end up in other European countries, including those to the east of Germany,” he said.Stoltenberg didn’t bother to venture a guess as to how Russia might respond to such a thumb-in-your-eye provocation. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova responded to earlier comments by Stoltenberg demanding “transparency” from Russia. She branded NATO claims as ludicrous that the alliance observes Russia’s desire to use its force and military capabilities against neighboring countries. “I would like to remind the NATO secretary general that in modern history exactly NATO member countries have been a source of aggression that has claimed millions of lives. NATO’s militarism and imperial ambitions have triggered dozens of armed conflicts, devastated states and led to the plight of civilians and millions of refugees,” she asserted. “However, these things somehow do not concern the alliance and this bloc is not going to bear responsibility for its crimes.” Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko, whose portfolio includes Russia’s relations with Europe and NATO, again made it clear that Russia is prepared to talk and negotiate, according to TASS. Grushko pointed out that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposed post-INF missile moratorium remains on the table. “The President’s initiative on reciprocal moratoriums is still in force. Moreover, it has become more topical in the current conditions. And we are convinced that healthy forces, including within NATO, who see the pernicious effects on European security of the prospects for the turning of our continent into a Cold War-style arena of confrontation, will draw conclusions and finally demonstrate the political will for continuing the dialogue on this topic,” he said. “We have repeatedly said we are ready to negotiate all other aspects linked with the implementation of this initiative, including the use of transparency and verification mechanisms.”

The manifest failure of the COP26 summit to get the entire world to drink the Kool-Aid of the British Empire’s Malthusian Green Reset policy—thanks principally to the resistance of developing countries such as India, Nigeria, Indonesia, China and also Russia—has bought the world a little time. But only a little.The entire trans-Atlantic sector is still in the throes of a systemic breakdown crisis. Hyperinflation is still spinning out of control, now hitting food as well as energy supplies with increases of 30% per year and more. The physical economy continues to plummet, threatening the survival of entire nations. The COVID-19 pandemic is still rampaging out of control, worsened by the mass psychosis of the medievalist anti-vax cult. And the danger of U.S.-NATO geopolitical wars against Russia and China is rising by the day, deploying nuclear weapons closer and closer to Russia while the State Department explicitly threatens to take up arms against China. “We have to have a rethinking,” Helga Zepp-LaRouche demanded in her weekly international webcast on Nov. 19. "The United States, Germany and other European countries should stop this geopolitical confrontation and say: ‘We have a pandemic, we have mass famine, we have a refugee crisis of biblical dimensions, and we must join hands and build the infrastructure, hospitals, schools, industry, agriculture, in all of these countries, and then all the migrants would want to go home.’ Because most countries, and most people prefer to stay in their home country, than to be displaced in some corner of the world, where they don’t understand the language and have to suffer many aggressions. “So let’s just build infrastructure! Let’s build up Africa!” Zepp-LaRouche insisted. “This is the natural thing, and the Chinese are doing the natural things and we should stop bickering about it, because we should take a moral lesson from the Chinese in this respect,” and join with the Belt and Road Initiative which this week celebrated the eighth anniversary of its announcement in 2013. Zepp-LaRouche continued: "People should wake up, because this is a moment in history when decisions will be made. Whether mankind tumbles into a new crisis, sleepwalks into a new war, goes into a new depression; or, if we take the alternatives which exist. And they emphatically exist in the form of the Belt and Road Initiative which, China has said many times, is open for every country: for the United States, for Europe, for all. “So rather than having this geopolitical obsession, I think people should just say: We have to concentrate on the common aims of mankind, and then we can all build a beautiful future together”—with the economic, political and cultural road map developed by Lyndon LaRouche, and presented at the Schiller Institute’s just-concluded conference of Nov. 13-14.