NATO Boss: We Think About Strengthening Eastern Europe for Longer

NATO is considering deploying more troops in Eastern Europe for the long term. “If Russia really wants less NATO close to its borders, they’ll get the opposite” as its military manoeuvres instil fear in Ukraine and NATO countries, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said.

NATO has already sent more troops and equipment to eastern member states due to Russian troop build-up on the Ukrainian border. In Belarus, Stoltenberg recalled after consulting Polish President Andrzej Duda. But in addition, “we are considering a change in our longer-term visible presence in the eastern part of the alliance”.

On the contrary, Russia demands that NATO withdraw from member states such as Poland and guarantees that Ukraine, for example, will never join the military alliance.

China agreed with the Kremlin last weekend. But in doing so, they try to “deny countries the right to make their own choices,” Stoltenberg said. “We must not go back to a time of spheres of influence where the great powers can tell others what they can and cannot do.”