World is at its most dangerous point in a generation, warns NATO chief

New York: Jens Stoltenberg, the head of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), has warned that the world is more dangerous today than it has been in a generation.

The remarks from the Secretary General of the military alliance came days before the mobilisation of an estimated 100,000 Russian troops on the EU’s eastern borders.

Stoltenberg's warning also holds significance in the backdrop of the escalating nuclear crisis in the Korean peninsular.

In an interview with the Guardian, Jens Stoltenberg said the sheer number of converging threats was making the world increasingly perilous.

When asked whether he had known a more dangerous time in his 30-year career, Stoltenberg responded by saying, ''It is more unpredictable, and it’s more difficult because we have so many challenges at the same time.''

“We have proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in North Korea, we have terrorists, instability, and we have a more assertive Russia,” Stoltenberg said during a break from visiting British troops stationed in Estonia. 

“It is a more dangerous world,” he said.

From next Thursday, over six days, Russian and Belarusian troops will take part in what is likely to be Moscow’s largest military exercise since the cold war. 

An estimated 100,000 soldiers, security personnel and civilian officials, will be active around the Baltic Sea, western Russia, Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, without the supervision required under international agreement.

On the other side of the world, the South Korean government has deployed the controversial US Thaad missile defence system as it looked to counter potential future attacks from North Korea, which recently launched a ballistic missile over Japan, threatened the US Pacific territory of Guam and tested a possible thermonuclear device.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to unleash “fire and fury” on the North Koreans should further threats be made against the US, and kept up the threat on Thursday, saying he is building up US military power.

With the Trump administration ruling out talks with Pyongyang for the time being, Washington’s diplomatic focus is now on efforts to secure agreement at the United Nations for much tighter economic measures, including an oil embargo and possibly a naval blockade.