NATO agreed on Thursday to dramatically boost its defenses with six bases in eastern Europe and a advance force of 5,000 troops to counter what the alliance called Russian aggression in Ukraine.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg insisted that the increase approved by defense ministers in Brussels was purely defensive, but it is likely to rile a Moscow that is more wary than ever of Western military intentions.
“This is the biggest reinforcement of our collective defense since the end of the Cold War,” Stoltenberg told the ministers.
Photo: Reuters
He said the decision to step up the 28-nation group’s defenses to the east were “a response to the aggressive actions we have seen from Russia, violating international law and annexing Crimea.”
France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland and Britain agreed to take the lead in forming the spearhead rapid reaction force, which would be available to deploy within a week in a crisis, Stoltenberg said.
The six “command and control” centers that would help the deployment of the force would be in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria, with a corps headquarters in Szczecin, Poland, he added.
All six countries were formerly in the orbit of the Soviet Union and have voiced deep concern about Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
NATO accuses Russia of sending troops and equipment to support separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, who have been fighting troops loyal to the Western-backed government since April last year with the loss of nearly 5,400 lives.
The Kremlin denies giving any backing to the rebels.
Ukraine has recently urged the West to send weapons to help Kiev fight the rebels, but former Norwegian prime minister Stoltenberg refused to say whether he thought it was a good idea.
He said NATO itself, an alliance set up after World War II to counter a growing Soviet threat, does not officially have weapons and “that has to be up to each individual ally to decide” whether to arm Ukraine.
The NATO chief, who took office in October last year, said he would meet later this week on the sidelines of a Munich security conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, US Vice President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
Stoltenberg said the NATO measures were also motivated by new threats to the 28-nation military alliance from Muslim militants in the Middle East and North Africa, who are fueling violence within Europe.
NATO aims to have the new 5,000-member spearhead force operational by next year, officials said. It would involve member nations having troops ready to deploy within a few days in case of a crisis, with them taking turns to lead the force for one year.
The command and control centers are being set up to make it easier to deploy the troops. NATO is also set to boost its wider response force — which would take weeks or months to deploy in a crisis — from 13,000 to 30,000 troops.
In a further blow to Moscow, NATO will set up a joint training center in the former Soviet state of Georgia, with which Russia fought a war in 2008.
Moscow has long been wary of NATO’s relations with its former allies, especially in the case of Kiev’s new pro-Western president, who has said he wants Ukraine to join the alliance.
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