Good morning. It’s Thursday and I’m Mared Gwyn. Today: NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte tells Euronews that Russia should stop issuing nuclear threats, and the UK Prime Minister puts EU membership back on the table.
Nuclear tensions: In an interview with Euronews, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has told Russia to stop issuing nuclear threats, after Moscow sent a letter to the alliance saying it is prepared to deploy its nuclear arsenal if its territory – including the enclave of Kaliningrad – comes under attack.
‘Stop’: "We are a defensive alliance. Stop the nuclear threats. This is absolutely not called for and not helpful," Rutte exclusively told the Euronews Defence and Space Summit on Wednesday, at a moment of heightened tension between Russia and the West.
Rutte, however, dismissed the immediate threat to the alliance’s members, saying "we will defend every inch of NATO territory”.
“That threat is not there, and if anything happens, we are ready to counter it,” he explained.
Reuters first reported that Russia had warned NATO in a document that it could resort to nuclear weapons if the alliance attempted to annex the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, while also threatening strikes on “decision-making centres” in NATO member states from the outset of a conflict.
‘Worst-case scenario’: Earlier on Wednesday, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev – also speaking at Euronews’ summit – called for European dialogue with Russia to avert a nuclear attack. While rejecting the Kremlin’s escalatory rhetoric, Radev reminded his European counterparts of the “nuclear card”, noting Russia would be prone to play it if weakened or cornered.
"We cannot close our eyes (to the fact) that there are nuclear weapons on our continent, there are nuclear weapons in the arsenal of Russia. And this is part of the game calculation,” Radev said.
Making Putin feel that ‘war is coming’: The European Commissioner for Defence, Andrius Kubilius, rejected Radev’s call for diplomatic engagement, warning it could embolden President Putin and undermine Ukraine.
"Russians are standing with their position very clear: Ukraine needs to surrender - that is their diplomacy position," Kubilius told Euronews, adding that Putin needs to “feel that war is coming to Russia itself”.
‘Made in Europe’ under fire: A push from Brussels to prioritise domestic European companies in defence contracts was also front and centre of the debate on Wednesday. NATO chief Rutte described the debate as a “luxury”, warning that the initiative ignores a basic problem: Europe's defence industry cannot produce enough.
Earlier on Wednesday, the US Ambassador to the EU, Andrew Puzder, slammed the EU’s “Buy European” weapons push as “self-interest”, saying it could disrupt the transatlantic defence industrial base and benefit Europe’s "enemies".
"One attack by a powerful adversary on a member state, and we’ll all be glad that we focused on weapon superiority rather than regional economics," Puzder told the summit audience.
My colleagues and I have more takeaways from the summit for you in this debrief.
Migration talks: Home Affairs Ministers are meeting in Luxembourg with migration top of the agenda. Ministers are expected to discuss proposed measures to tackle irregular arrivals under the European Emergency Response Framework, expected to be unveiled by the Commission next month.
EU sources tell my colleague Vincenzo Genovese that the proposal is expected to include a temporary suspension of asylum rights.
Italy extends border controls: The meeting comes as tensions between Italy and Spain escalate again, after Rome extended aerial and maritime border checks with Spain by another 15 days in response to the situation in the enclave of Ceuta, where 80,000 migrants entered in an unprecedented mass entry in July.
Meanwhile, a delegation of MEPs visited the Spanish exclave on Wednesday, denouncing the attacks and smear campaigns directed against activists and organisations working on the ground by far-right groups.
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