NATO will deploy battalions in Finland and Sweden if they are requested as members of the alliance

The NATO said today that it is open to addressing a possible military reinforcement in Finland Y Sweden with the deployment of new battalions in their territories if, once their entry into the Atlantic Alliance is completed, they so request.

“Each country decides for itself whether or not it wants more troops,” stressed the president of the Military Committee of the NATOAdmiral Rob Bauer, at a press conference at the end of a meeting in Brussels of the Alliance Defense Chiefs.

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The tension due to the increase in Russian troops on the border of Ukraine in recent months, which culminated on February 24 with the invasion of that country by Russiamotivated the NATO decided to double the multinational battalions on the eastern flank.

To those already deployed in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland as a result of the Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine in 2014, the decision to place new battalions in Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria has been added.

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“The question of the battalions is not something that NATO forces countries to do, it is a combination of the request of the countries and the discussion about who is going to help them,” explained the Dutch admiral.

In any case, he acknowledged that Finland Y Sweden finally become members of the Alliance, “one of the discussions we will have,” he said, is whether they want these troops in their territory, “because we do not force anything on anyone, it is a discussion between sovereign states,” he added.

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Stockholm and Helsinki presented yesterday, Wednesday, their formal request to join NATO after decades of neutrality in defense against the threat of Russia after having invaded Ukraine, although Turkey At the moment it maintains a veto on their integration if those countries maintain what Ankara considers a policy of welcoming Kurdish militants, whom it considers terrorists.

Bauer considered “important” that both countries have, from the time they submit their application for membership until it is completed with the approval of the 30 current allies, “security guarantees, which is not the same as article 5 because they are not yet members ”, and recalled that there are already “a series of countries or groups of countries” that “have agreed to assist them”.

The head of the allied Military Committee considered that Finland and Sweden are the “closest partners” of NATO and that they are “used to working with them” in different exercises or operations.

In addition to doubling the border line between Russia and the NATOFinland’s entry would also allow the Alliance to come within 200 kilometers of Russia’s second largest city, Saint Petersburg.

For his part, the Supreme Commander of the Alliance for Europe (SACEUR), General Tod D. Wolters, celebrated the call today between the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valeri Gerasimov, and his American counterpart, Mark Milley, to talk about the situation in Ukraine.

Their last contact had been on February 18, six days before the beginning of the Russian military aggression in Ukraine.

“We want diplomacy to come to the fore”said Wolters, who hoped that “as a result of the conversation we will be one step closer to achieving a solution.”

Bauer also highlighted the “tremendous morale” of the Ukrainian troops, who, like those of NATO, “know exactly what they are fighting for: the protection of freedom and democracy.”

Instead, “many Russian soldiers probably don’t understand why they are there,” in Ukrainehe pointed.

Today’s Military Committee focused on the war in Ukraine but also, the Allied Secretary General, Jens Stoltenbergwho also participated in the meeting, discussed with the Alliance military chiefs the geostrategic context and the preparations for the summit of leaders of the NATO to be held at the end of June in Madrid.

According to a statement released by the Alliance, Stoltenberg thanked the thirty allied defense chiefs for their “valuable contribution” to “defend every inch of the territory of the NATO” against threats coming from any direction.

“It is important that we maintain our efforts and ‘readjust’ our position for the long term”Stoltenberg said, adding that this readjustment “does not mean starting from scratch”, but rather it is necessary to build on the adaptation carried out by the Alliance since Russia illegally annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014.

Stoltenberg also thanked the contributions to the new NATO “Strategic Concept” that the leaders will approve in Madrid and that will prepare the Alliance for “an era of strategic competition and increased security threats”.

Source: Elcomercio

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