The Atlantic Alliance, which now describes Russia as a “threat”, strengthens its flank is in Europe.
by and
The cold war climate, resurrected by the Russian attack on Ukraine, has found a new translation. Presented as a “partner” since the late 1990s, Russia has become a “threat” for the thirty member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO). Moscow represents “the most significant and direct threat to the security of the Allies,” said the secretary general of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, at the organizational summit, who was held in Madrid from June 28 to 30 and Course from which European and North American capitals displayed a united front.
Sign of this change of tone, NATO announced at the top a strengthening of its defense system on the eastern flank of Europe. The forces made available to the Alliance by the member countries and capable of being quickly projected will be carried “well above” of 300,000 soldiers, announced Mr. Stoltenberg, without however specifying their distribution. This new plan should allow the organization, in the event of the attack of one of the member countries, to deploy 100,000 men in less than ten days, then 200,000 additional within thirty days, against 40,000 mobilizable in less than fifteen days currently.
Before the announcement of these new rapid reaction forces, NATO had already decided, in March, to strengthen its permanent presence in the east countries of the old continent. Four new “tactical groups” (BattleGroups) have since been created in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia, bringing the number of military alliance on the eastern flank to eight. A way to fill the holes of the 1,200 km arc ranging from the Baltic countries to the Black Sea, which most directly faces the Russian threat. Until now, only Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland had such “battlegrounds”, created in 2017 after the invasion of Crimea by Russia.
significant effective in Poland
This terrestrial system has been completed by strengthening the monitoring of the airspace of these same countries. Before the war, NATO members randomly contributed to the sky police from the various states, mainly from the Baltic countries. Since February, this system has been amplified and planes under NATO command has been taking care today in the sky of the countries exposed. These devices can take off from different European bases or aircraft carriers. France has notably sent a hundred aviators to Estonia, to patrol the border with Russia, where aircraft approaches from the former Red Army are regularly denounced by the Alliance.
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