London: The US Vice President Kamala Harris, warned Russia that there will be a heavy price to pay if it invades its neighbour Ukraine. Kamala Harris in her address at Annual Munich Security Conference, making a maiden appearance on one of the multilateral big stages, said we will impose significant and unprecedented economic costs.

She stated, spelling these out as “economic sanctions and export controls. She also put Moscow on notice that the western alliance will not stop at commercial measures. She also said we will further reinforce NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a cold war military association since 1949) allies in Eastern Europe.

She described NATO as the greatest military alliance the world has ever seen. Harris prefaced her statement on consequences for Russia by stressing; National borders should not be changed by force. Slightly late to arrive at the venue of the conference, she was relaxed and at ease during her nearly 13-minute speech, which was followed by about 17 minutes of question and answer session. She wore a red silk blouse and dark jacket and trousers.

She maintained: “We (the United States) have put concrete proposals on the table (to President Vladimir Putin’s Russian government), we have engaged in good faith,” adding: “Russia narrows the avenues for diplomacy.”  She accused the Putin regime of indulging in “provocation, disinformation, lies and propaganda”.