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NATO won’t pull back to old borders, US envoy to alliance says

"We are operating in today’s world," Julianne Smith said

BRUSSELS, January 11. /TASS/. NATO won’t pull back to its size as of two decades ago, Ambassador Julianne Smith, the US permanent representative to NATO, said during a conference call in Brussels on Tuesday.

"When you talk to NATO allies one thing becomes clear in terms of consensus at the table," she said. "This alliance is not going to be rolling back time and returning to a completely different era, where we had a very different alliance with smaller and a very different footprint."

"We are operating in today’s world," she went on to say.

Smith made the comments when asked about Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov’s statement that NATO must withdraw to its borders of 1997.

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