Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is looking forward to the meeting with Vladimir Putin in Budapest announced by US President Donald Trump. “I believe that we have to talk to Russia if we want the war in Ukraine to end,” said Stoltenberg at the Frankfurt Book Fair. “But the dialogue must be conducted from a position of strength.”
In order to create the conditions for negotiations, the West must continue to support Ukraine – politically, financially and militarily. Otherwise, no peace can be achieved with which Ukraine remains a free country, only occupation. “If Putin understands that he cannot win on the battlefield, he will sit down and negotiate.”
Nobel Peace Prize winner: Fight in her pocket
Stoltenberg discussed at the book fair with the Filipino Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa. She urgently warned against disinformation campaigns on the Internet and social media. “The mother of all battles today is the fight for the integrity of information,” said the 2021 award-winning investigative journalist. “This fight is in your pocket,” she said, showing her smartphone.
“When we don’t have facts, when we’re pumped full of fear and violence, it changes the way we feel, the way we act, the way we vote.” Lies spread so much faster than the truth in the virtual world. “The leaders of democratic states stand on wood that is eaten by termites.”
Frankfurt Book Fair
