Leaders in the Baltic countries and Poland fear the force NATO plans to deploy on their territory is too small and symbolic to deter an attack by Russia, whose 2014 annexation of Crimea is fresh in the memories of the former Soviet-bloc states.
This week they are to press other ministers of the Western military alliance to help them build an air defense system against Russian aircraft and missiles. However, that would be a highly sensitive step, likely to be condemned by Moscow as yet more evidence of a NATO strategy threatening its borders.
Asked about the likelihood of Russian aggression in the Baltics, Lithuanian Defense Minister Juozas Olekas said: “We cannot exclude it ... They might exercise on the borders and then switch to invasion in hours.”
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia see themselves on the front line in any potential conflict with Moscow, and say they are putting their armies on a war footing, meaning they can be mobilized almost immediately.
NATO defense ministers are set to agree this week on a new multinational force of 4,000 troops for the Baltics and Poland.
The US, Germany and Britain are set to lead battalions of about 1,000 troops each. Canada might lead a fourth.
While the Baltic nations welcome the deployments, they say the build-up must go further — pointing to Russia’s efforts to develop an “anti-access” capability in the Kaliningrad exclave bordering Lithuania and Poland, using missiles and submarines to stop NATO moving reinforcements into the Baltics.
The Baltics want NATO fighters to protect their skies and are seeking medium-range missile interceptors from Norway’s Kongsberg Gruppen and US defense contractor Raytheon.
“We need to stop possible air aggression,” Olekas said. “We are discussing creating a regional medium-range air defense system together with the Latvians, the Estonians and the Poles.”
Olekas expects to raise the matter with NATO colleagues at a ministers’ meeting today and tomorrow in Brussels.
“The first and foremost is the defense of our airspace. Air defense is the challenge that needs to solved together with the NATO alliance,” the head of the Estonian defense force Lieutenant General Riho Terras said.
“We are not talking about defense of Lithuania, we are talking about the credibility of the whole alliance,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius said.
However, such calls would require stretched NATO governments to beef up the so-called air policing mission that regularly intercepts Russian jets flying over international waters close to the Baltic states.
The Baltic nations rely on their NATO allies’ quick reaction aircraft to patrol their skies, with no mandate to confront hostile aircraft in a conflict.
Ben Hodges, the commander of the US army in Europe, visited Vilnius last week and echoed Baltic concerns about the strength of NATO’s deterrence.
“It is a transition,” Hodges said. “I hope that includes serious war fighting capabilities. Just putting garrisons of troops sitting in the countries ... will not deter.”
Russia insists it poses no threat to the former Soviet states. Top NATO officials say talk of an impending attack is misleading, a view shared by Paris and Berlin.
Russia has held unannounced exercises on the borders of the Baltics, including one in 2014, which mustered 100,000 troops, said Danish Colonel Jakob Sogard Larsen, who heads the new NATO command outpost in Lithuania.
“You see it differently when you live here,” Larsen said.
“We need to learn to fight total war again,” he said, in a sign of the return of a Cold War-style mood.
An American scientist convicted of lying to US authorities about payments from China while he was at Harvard University has rebuilt his research lab in Shenzhen, China, to pursue technology the Chinese government has identified as a national priority: embedding electronics into the human brain. Charles Lieber, 67, is among the world’s leading researchers in brain-computer interfaces. The technology has shown promise in treating conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and restoring movement in paralyzed people. It also has potential military applications: Scientists at the Chinese People’s Liberation Army have investigated brain interfaces as a way to engineer super soldiers by boosting
Jailed media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai (黎智英) has been awarded Deutsche Welle’s (DW) freedom of speech award for his contribution to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. The German public broadcaster on Thursday said Lai would be presented in absentia with the 12th iteration of the award on June 23 at the DW Global Media Forum in Bonn. Deutsche Welle director-general Barbara Massing praised the 78-year-old founder of the now-shuttered news outlet Apple Daily for standing “unwaveringly for press freedom in Hong Kong at great personal risk.” “With Apple Daily, he gave journalists a platform for free reporting and a voice to the democracy movement in
PHILIPPINE COMMITTEE: The head of the committee that made the decision said: ‘If there is nothing to hide, there is no reason to hide, there is no reason to obstruct’ A Philippine congressional committee on Wednesday ruled that there was “probable cause” to impeach Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte after hearing allegations of unexplained wealth, misuse of state funds and threats to have the president assassinated. The unanimous decision of the 53-member committee in the Philippine House of Representatives sends the two impeachment complaints to deliberations and voting by the entire lower chamber, which has more than 300 lawmakers. The complaints centered on Duterte’s alleged illegal use and mishandling of intelligence funds from the vice president’s office, and from her time as education secretary under Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Duterte and the
As evening falls in Fiji’s capital, a steady stream of people approaches a makeshift clinic that is a first line of defense against one of the world’s fastest-growing HIV epidemics. In the South Pacific nation — a popular tourist destination of just under a million people — more than 2,000 new HIV cases were recorded last year, a 26 percent increase from 2024. The government has declared an HIV outbreak and described it as a national crisis. “It’s spreading like wildfire,” said Siteri Dinawai, 46, who came to be tested. The Moonlight Clinic, a converted minibus parked in a suburban cul-de-sac in Suva, is
RSS