NATO’s commitments in Poland and the Baltic countries, the strategic eastern flank of the Atlantic Alliance, constitute one of the main discrepancies between Russia and the West.
With Western countries facing the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, Moscow urges the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to reconsider its deployment in the region.
The affected countries, once under Soviet rule and sharing a common border with Russia, are asking for the opposite: a stronger Alliance presence.
Here are some facts and figures on the deployment of NATO’s “enhanced advanced presence” in Poland and the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania).
– The biggest booster –
In 2017, NATO deployed four multinational battalions on a rotating basis to Poland and the Baltic countries to protect against a potential Russian threat.
It is the biggest reinforcement of collective defenses since the Cold War, a device that Polish President Andrzej Duda called a “historic moment”.
Poland has been a member of NATO since 1999. The Baltic countries – whose combined population is less than six million – have been since 2004.
– Crimea –
NATO decided to send military units to its far east after Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula and backed pro-Russian separatists to take control of parts of eastern Ukraine in 2014.
The four countries, dominated by the Soviet Union for more than four decades, pressed for the establishment of units of the Organization.
– Achilles heel –
Poland indicated that battle groups were needed to help defend the “Suwalki Pass”, a land corridor on the Polish-Lithuanian border, situated between the highly militarized Russian enclave of Kaliningrad and Belarus.
It is the Achilles heel of NATO’s eastern flank and its conquest would separate the Baltic countries from Alliance-controlled territory.
– Troops –
The four NATO battalions based in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland are led respectively by the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and the United States, with contributions from fifteen other countries.
Each grouping includes around 1,200 troops, but the number of troops varies from country to country and changes depending on the deployment process.
– More reinforcements –
Facing the latest threat from Moscow in the region, Poland and the Baltic states called for more support.
In November, the Polish president asked the Atlantic Alliance to send reinforcements to its eastern end. And Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas called in early January for a greater US presence in the Baltic countries.
In this regard, there were calls for a permanent American presence.
But NATO promised Russia in 1997 not to set up permanent bases in the former eastern bloc.
– Russian requirements-
Deploying more than 100,000 troops to the Ukrainian border, Moscow last month asked Western countries for far-reaching security guarantees.
These requests include a guarantee that Ukraine will never be able to join NATO, but they also concern other countries such as Poland and the Baltic countries.
Russia insists above all on the fact that the other members of the Alliance “do not deploy military forces or weapons” in Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.
According to Moscow, such deployments can be authorized “in exceptional cases to eliminate a security threat”, but only after its consent.
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