Time.news – The war in Ukraine and its “long-term security” will be discussed on April 26 in a meeting led by the US Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin, with NATO partners but also with non-member countries of the Atlantic Alliance. Lor announced Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, in a press briefing hinting that Washington is looking at Ukraine with a long-term horizon. The summit, however, he stressed, “will not be about reconstruction”.
The choice of the Ramstein Air Force base, in Southern Germany, as the venue for the expanded meeting has a highly symbolic value for the United States: it was the European base of the ‘war on terror’, the US-led war on terrorism.
Often snubbed by the American media, is considered by Washington the fundamental hub in the war with drones, as well as being the most important aviation base outside the United States. From here there were attacks on Afghanistan and cargo loaded with ammunition for air raids in Syria and Iraq. This is where Poland has said it is ready to transfer all its Mig-29s and make them available to the Americans.
Today, I am announcing another $800 million to further augment Ukraine’s ability to fight in the East.
This package will include heavy artillery weapons, dozens of howitzers, and 144,000 rounds of ammunition to go with them. It also includes more tactical drones.
— President Biden (@POTUS) April 21, 2022
Finding yourself in the large Air Force base will be like putting pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin and delivering a message to him: the White House sees him as an Iraqi dictator or an Afghan terrorist.
Known as ‘little America’, Ramstein is located in the rural corner of Germany, near Kaiserslautern, populated by nearly 60,000 Americans, with five colleges and facilities to make soldiers feel at home, often followed by families. But it is also important from a political point of view in an anti-Russia key.
Sadly famous for the accident that occurred in 1988 during an exhibition of the Frecce Tricolori which caused 70 deaths, including three Italian pilots, Ramstein is the American base from which reassurances to the allies left, in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine .
“We are always ready”, announced the commander, Brigadier General Joshua M. Olson, even if the first contingent of three thousand soldiers sent by President Joe Biden to the eastern part did not pass through the main base, but from that of Vilseck, less than four hundred kilometers away.
“We are ready for any scenario – the military leaders repeated in recent weeks – but of course the scenario of a global clash is to be avoided”. On that the White House was clear: it will not be a war between the US and Russia, but a summit in Ramstein to plan the “long-term” future it is a message of “proximity” sent to the Kremlin.