Germany, 27 June 2014 - Government officials in Germany consider the conflict in and around Ukraine to be the biggest security challenge of the post-Cold War era. NATO needs to forge a comprehensive response to Russia’s practice of “hybrid warfare” tactics in Ukraine, a delegation of NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATO PA) members was told in Berlin.

One of the elements of such a response could be enhancing the Alliance’s ability to deploy additional assets to more vulnerable Allied countries on short notice.

At the same time, German officials noted that the current crisis is not comparable in magnitude to the Cold War confrontation. They stressed that a window for dialogue with Russia must be maintained as a means to influence Russia’s position.

German interlocutors stressed that there is no back peddling on the NATO Bucharest Summit statement concerning Georgia’s future membership in the Alliance. They argued in favour of offering Georgia a new comprehensive package to further enhance the partnership, while avoiding “toxic” issues.

A 20-member delegation of the NATO PA Committee on the Civil Dimension of Security, led by Committee Chairman Lord Jopling (UK), visited Berlin, Aachen, Cologne and Düsseldorf on June 23-26 to discuss Germany’s perspective on international issues such as the Ukraine-Russia conflict, transition in Afghanistan and developments in the Middle East as well as Germany’s approach to handling international and domestic terrorism, extremism and radicalism.