Nato leaders geared up on Friday for a long-term stand-off with Russia, ordering multinational troops to Poland and the three Baltic states as Moscow moves forward with its own plans to station two new divisions along its western borders.
Alliance Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that on the first day of a landmark two-day summit, US President Barack Obama and leaders of the 27 other Nato countries also declared the initial building blocks of a ballistic missile defence system operationally capable, recognised cyberspace as a domain for alliance operations, committed to boosting their countries’ civil preparedness, and renewed a pledge to spend a minimum of 2 per cent of their national incomes on defence.
We have just taken decisions to deliver 21st-century deterrence and defence in the face of 21st century challenges
“We have just taken decisions to deliver 21st-century deterrence and defence in the face of 21st century challenges,” Stoltenberg told a news conference. He said deployment of the new Nato units to Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on a rotational basis would start next year, with no end date.
“It’s an open-ended commitment and will last as long as necessary,” he said. “And it is a new reality because we didn’t have that kind of presence in the eastern part of the alliance before.”
He announced plans as well for an enhanced Nato presence in the Black Sea region, where Russia has also reasserted its influence, with creation of a multinational brigade under Romanian and Bulgarian command.
Polish President Andrzej Duda, the summit’s official host, warned that Western democratic values are being undermined by a “notorious lack of respect for international law” as well as terrorism and high-tech warfare, and said Nato needs a coherent strategy to address those problems.