BRUSSELS--NATO will establish command centers in six of its
eastern countries in coming months, Secretary-General Jens
Stoltenberg said Friday, part of a beefed-up response to Russian
aggressiveness.
The outposts will form a chain of potential command centers for
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's already announced new
rapid-response force of roughly 5,000 troops, whose details are to
be finalized at a meeting next week of NATO defense ministers.
The centers also will provide a link between NATO and the armed
forces of the six countries where they will be located--Poland,
Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
Mr. Stoltenberg announced the new centers at a news conference
in Brussels, where he also urged NATO allies to spend more on
defense to counter Russia's military budget. Mr. Stoltenberg also
said he would meet with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in
the sidelines of a security conference in Munich in two weeks.
"Especially when times are difficult, as they are now, it is
important to meet and discuss also difficult issues," Mr.
Stoltenberg said.
The command centers are intended partly as a warning to Russia
and a reassurance to NATO allies who have become increasingly
jittery following Moscow's aggressive actions in Ukraine and
elsewhere.
The creation of the spearhead rapid-response force, designed to
mobilize within two days in case of a belligerent move by an
adversary, is the highest-profile move by NATO to bolster its
defenses in the aftermath of Russia's takeover of Crimea and its
incursions into eastern Ukraine, which Moscow denies.
"This will be the biggest reinforcement of our collective
defense since the end of the Cold War," Mr. Stoltenberg said.
Each command center will likely be staffed by about 50 military
personnel from various NATO countries. The outposts are in a sense
a compromise between NATO's eastern countries, some of whom want
full-scale NATO bases on their territory, and other members wary of
building expensive new installations that could provoke Moscow.
The command centers will open by 2016, when the spearhead force
is scheduled to be in full operation. In the meantime, an interim
rapid-response force is being headed by Germany, the Netherlands
and Norway.
At next week's meeting of NATO defense ministers, individual
countries are expected to announce they will take responsibility
for coordinating one of the spearhead force's units. When the force
is full operation, one unit will be on full alert status an any
given time, while another will be gearing up and a third will be
standing down.
Mr. Stoltenberg discussed the new outposts, to be called "NATO
Force Integration Units," at a wide-ranging press discussion with
reporters. He called 2014 a "black year" for European security,
marked by Russia's assertiveness, the threat of terrorism and
turmoil in the Middle East.
Mr. Stoltenberg said it is critical that NATO's European members
spend more on defense. In 2014 NATO countries spent about $852
billion on defense, he said, $7 billion less than the year
before.
NATO is working to become more efficient, the secretary-general
said. "But in the long run it is not possible to get more out of
less indefinitely," he added. "That is why we have to stop the cuts
and gradually start to increase defense spending as our economies
grow."
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