“All options are on the table,” Karen Donfried said on Friday, referring to how the United States would respond to the “large and unusual” concentration of Russian troops near the border with Ukraine.
“NATO will decide what the next move will be after next week’s consultations,” the deputy foreign minister for European and Eurasian affairs told reporters.
“There is a toolbox with a wide range of options,” he said, adding that it was now up to the North Atlantic Alliance to decide what its next moves would be.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will visit Latvia and Sweden next week to attend meetings of NATO and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), where Russian troops will be at the top of the agenda. border with Ukraine.
US, NATO and Ukrainian officials have been sounding the alarm in recent weeks over what they say is an unusual move by Russian troops, suggesting that Moscow may be ready to launch an attack on the neighboring country, accusations that Russia has dismissed as a threat.
Asked if Blinken was going to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during his stay in Stockholm, Donfried said he had nothing to say, but added: “Stay tuned.”
