Russia And China Slam Nato After Alliance Raises Alarm

Will Respond In Kind If Troops And Military Infrastructure Allowed On Territory, Putin Warns Finland And Sweden

Madrid: Nato faced rebukes from Moscow and Beijing on Thursday after it declared Russia a "direct threat" and said China posed "serious challenges " to global stability. Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said as the summit wrapped up Thursday that member nations agreed on a "fundamental shift in our deterrence and defence" and sent Moscow a clear message that the alliance had a firm line drawn on its eastern frontier. "We live in a more dangerous world and we live in a more unpredictable world, and we live in a world where we have a hot war going on in Europe," Stoltenberg said. "At the same time, we also know that this can get worse if this becomes a full scale war between Russia and Nato." He continued: "We want to remove any room for miscalculation, misunderstanding in Moscow, about our readiness to protect every inch of Nato territory. That's Nato's core responsibility." Over their three days of talks in Spain, Nato leaders formally invited Finland and Sweden to join the alliance. If the Nordic nations' accession is approved by the 30 member nations, it will give Nato a 1,300 kilometre border with Russia.