US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron chat before the first working session of the North Atlantic Council at the Nato summit in Warsaw, Poland. (Photo: PTI)
The United States announced on Friday it will deploy 1,000 troops to Poland as part of broader Nato efforts to reassure former Communist eastern member states fearful of a more assertive Russia.
Speaking at a Nato summit in Warsaw, President Barack Obama said the troops would serve “shoulder to shoulder” with Polish forces.
They are expected to conduct frequent training missions and will be “mechanised”, meaning they would have regular infantry equipment including armoured personnel carriers.
Britain said earlier this week it would commit 650 troops to a separate battalion, and fellow Nato allies Germany and Canada have also pledged to stand up their own units.
The troops will rotate through Poland plus the three small Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, acting as a tripwire to deter any Russian adventurism. They are backed up by a “Spearhead Force” — officially the “Very High Readiness Joint Task Force” — which numbers about 5,000 troops ready to move within a couple of days.
Nato has been working to prevent a repeat of Russia’s Ukraine intervention and annexation of Crimea in 2014, with former Soviet-bloc members anxious they could be vulnerable should Moscow attempt additional land grabs. Nato has mounted a series of exercises, especially in the eastern member states, to test readiness levels and reassure nervous allies, and it has also deployed extra aircraft to boost air policing, especially over the Baltic states.
Further south, Nato is increasingly focusing on alliance members Romania and Bulgaria as they cast a wary eye across the Black Sea, where the Russians are building up their military presence.
Nato has announced plans to set up a similar reassurance force in Romania. Meanwhile, French President Francois Hollande said on Friday that Russia should not be considered a threat but rather a partner, as Nato leaders met to endorse a revamp to counter a more aggressive Moscow.
“Nato has no role at all to be saying what Europe’s relations with Russia should be. For France, Russia is not an adversary, not a threat,” Mr Hollande said.
