Stoltenberg told a press conference that since the Alliance’s last summit in September 2014 in Wales, NATO has implemented the biggest reinforcement of its collective defence since the Cold War.
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NATO’s chief today said alliance leaders this week will approve the use of NATO AWACS aircraft to assist the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State extremist group.
“Such moves of our Western colleagues lead to erosion of the strategic stability in Europe and force us to take counter measures, primarily in the western theater of operations”, Shoigu said, adding that Russian Federation is taking action aimed at strategic deterrence in the western military district to “neutralize potential threats”. “We now need to take the next steps”.
The checks will be done at airports, sea ports and on borders with other European Union states, including Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
For southeastern Europe, NATO leaders will approve the formation of a multinational brigade to be based in Romania, Stoltenberg said. “The Warsaw Summit will renew our commitment to spend more on defence and to spend better”, Stoltenberg added.
“Warsaw is not the end”, he said.
Stoltenberg also included Canada in a list of alliance members that increased their defence spending previous year.
“But we have a very long way to go and we must keep up the momentum”, he cautioned.
“There is a much greater sense that we’re dealing with a long-term strategic competition with Russian Federation”, said Alexander Vershbow, deputy secretary general of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the Western military alliance formed during the Cold War to defend against the Soviet Union.
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Planned NATO talks with Moscow should be focussed exclusively on Russia’s “withdrawal” from Ukrainian soil, Polish Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz said Tuesday.
