NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct US assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine.
The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the three-year mark. They involve about 10,000 troops from nine nations and represent the largest NATO operation planned this year.
The US absence from the exercises comes as European nations scramble to build greater military self-sufficiency over their concerns about the commitment of US President Donald Trump’s administration to common defense and demands for increased European military spending.
Photo: AP
Trump on Wednesday announced his intention to negotiate with Russia directly, and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said at his first meeting with NATO colleagues in Brussels that day that European nations should dramatically increase their defense spending and shoulder the “overwhelming share” of funding for Ukraine.
Greek and Spanish marines led Thursday’s military demonstration, an amphibious assault near the central Greek city of Volos, in the first full-scale operational deployment of NATO’s new Allied Reaction Force (ARF).
Established in July last year, the force represents NATO’s latest strategic evolution, designed to deploy at scale within 10 days and combining conventional forces with cyber and space-based technologies.
“This is what we’ve been training for,” the ARF’s commander, Italian Lieutenant General Lorenzo D’Addario, said after the 90-minute demonstration.
“The thinking is that NATO wanted to have a force that is ready, that is flexible, that can operate across the five domains — air, sea, land, but indeed cyber and space — in a way that ensures it answers the [needs] of defending the alliance, but also deterring” conflict, he said.
Western military officials — anticipating lasting tension with Russia and President Vladimir Putin, possibly beyond the Ukraine conflict — argue that NATO’s new capability is becoming increasingly important to reinforce its eastern flank.
“As we soon approach the anniversary of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, we see today a revitalized and refocused NATO,” said Canadian Lieutenant General Peter Scott, the deputy commander of NATO’s Joint Force Command in Naples, Italy, who also attended the exercise.
He described the exercise as “a significant milestone, an accomplishment in the modernization and expansion of NATO’s readiness to defend every inch of allied territory.”
Scott said preparations for the exercise started two years ago and followed cooperation with planners from non-participating countries, including the United States.
“But in future exercises, there’ll be a different make up of countries that are going to participate. But purely for this one, that’s just the way it rolls out,” he said.
The current exercise involves forces from nine NATO members, including regional rivals Greece and Turkey, deploying 17 naval vessels, more than 20 aircraft and over 1,500 military vehicles. Britain leads the operation with 2,600 military personnel and 730 vehicles, assuming command of all land forces during the drills.
The drills, which end on Feb. 26, focus on rapid deployment scenarios and multidomain operations across air, land, sea and special forces, underscoring NATO’s shifting military posture along its eastern boundaries.
Participating nations are Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and the UK. Earlier this week, communist-backed groups staged small protests near the training area in central Greece, opposing the country’s involvement in overseas deployments.
MINERAL DEPOSITS: The Pacific nation is looking for new foreign partners after its agreement with Canada’s Metals Co was terminated ‘mutually’ at the end of last year Pacific nation Kiribati says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China, dangling access to a vast patch of Pacific Ocean harboring coveted metals and minerals. Beijing has been ramping up efforts to court Pacific nations sitting on lucrative seafloor deposits of cobalt, nickel and copper — recently inking a cooperation deal with Cook Islands. Kiribati opened discussions with Chinese Ambassador Zhou Limin (周立民) after a longstanding agreement with leading deep-sea mining outfit The Metals Co fell through. “The talk provides an exciting opportunity to explore potential collaboration for the sustainable exploration of the deep-ocean resources in Kiribati,” the government said
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
The central Dutch city of Utrecht has installed a “fish doorbell” on a river lock that lets viewers of an online livestream alert authorities to fish being held up as they make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds. The idea is simple: An underwater camera at Utrecht’s Weerdsluis lock sends live footage to a Web site. When somebody watching the site sees a fish, they can click a button that sends a screenshot to organizers. When they see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through. Now in its fifth year, the
RSS