From top-level decisions like how NATO orders its troops into action to the granular, like repainting an airfield near the Baltic Sea coast, the US-led alliance is retooling for what it fears could be years of confrontation with Russia.
“After decades of peace, that peaceful period after the Cold War is now over,” Polish Minister of Defense Tomasz Siemoniak said. “Because there are more and more crises erupting around Europe, and we have to make sure that the public understands it.”
Yesterday, Siemoniak, US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and counterparts from throughout NATO opened a two-day meeting in Brussels expected to continue reshaping an organization originally founded in 1949 to deter the Stalin-era Soviet Union from overrunning Western Europe with its tanks and troops.
Today’s security challenges come once again from Moscow — but also from surging Muslim groups like the Islamic State and on battlefields unheard of by NATO’s founders, like cyberspace.
“NATO is adapting to this new environment, to the new conditions on its periphery,” US Ambassador to NATO Douglas Lute said.
To continue the adaptation, alliance defense ministers are expected to order a further increase in the NATO Response Force, from 30,000 to as many as 40,000 troops, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.
In February, at a meeting in Brussels, defense ministers agreed to create a rapidly deployable multinational task force of 5,000 ground troops that could come to the aid within 48 hours of any NATO member menaced by Russia or other external threats.
Yesterday, the ministers were expected to decide on the air, sea and special forces units needed to complement this so-called “spearhead force,” and Lute predicted that Carter would offer a sizeable US contribution.
On Tuesday, Carter announced during a visit to Estonia that the US will also spread about 250 tanks, armored vehicles and other military equipment across half a dozen of NATO’s easternmost members that feel most at risk from Russia.
Earlier, Carter told reporters traveling with him that the administration of US President Barack Obama still hopes to work with the Russians on important issues like the Iran nuclear talks, the fight against the Islamic State group and efforts to bring about peaceful regime change in Syria.
However, Carter said that NATO must adapt its deterrence and response capabilities “in anticipation that Russia might not change under [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, or even thereafter.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of