UPDATE AND REWRITE OF EARLIER STORIES FOLLOWING US/UK TROOP ANNOUNCEMENTS
WARSAW (AA) – NATO countries announced sweeping plans Friday to bolster their defenses and build closer ties with the European Union to address shared security concerns, including a more assertive Russia.
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance would take major decisions to address the concerns of its member states as the United States and Britain said they would deploy hundreds of troops to Eastern Europe.
Addressing a forum in Warsaw before a key summit of NATO countries, he said: “Today, we will agree to enhance our forward presence in the east of the alliance. In Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and here in Poland.
“We will deploy, by rotation, a robust, multinational battalion in each of the countries. Making clear that an attack against one ally will be met by forces from across the alliance.”
U.S. President Barack Obama said his country would send additional 1,000 troops to lead the battalion stationed in Poland, while the U.K. announced plans to send 500 troops to lead the Estonian battalion and “provide reassurance and to react immediately to any crisis or incident.”
Underlining the U.K.’s continuing role in NATO after the Brexit vote, British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said: “These deployments show Britain taking a leading role in NATO, protecting the security of our Baltic allies. We can do this because we are increasing defense spending every year for the rest of the decade.”
The battalions in Lithuania and Latvia would be led by Germany and Canada respectively, Stoltenberg said.
– ‘Not a confrontation with Russia’
Stoltenberg underlined that NATO’s new deterrence measures in Eastern Europe would be defensive in nature, and are not aimed at a new confrontation with Russia.
“We do not want a new Cold War. The Cold War is history. And it should remain history,” he said.
“We will continue to seek constructive and meaningful dialogue with Russia,” he said.
NATO-Russia relations soured further following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The UN General Assembly voted almost unanimously to proclaim the annexation illegal.
Along with many UN countries, including the U.S. and the EU, Turkey does not recognize Crimea as Russian territory.
Eastern European countries have long called for a stronger NATO presence in their countries amid fears of a more assertive Russia.
– New EU deal
The troop deployment came as NATO signed a joint declaration with the EU aimed at intensifying cooperation in addressing common security challenges, including cyberattacks and the refugee crisis.
European Council President Donald Tusk said closer cooperation between the EU and NATO would improve the security of citizens in Europe.
“We want to be ready to respond and coordinate our actions if and when one of our members or institutions comes under hybrid threats, we equally want to prevent attacks,” he said.
He said close cooperation between the EU and NATO would provide more security in case of attacks on critical infrastructure in Europe, cyberattacks on banking systems, or disinformation campaigns via social networks.
He also said the EU and NATO would intensify intelligence-sharing and conduct parallel and coordinated exercises to be ready to face such threats.
*Anadolu Agency’s Michael Daventry contributed to this report from London.
