Conflicts & War

Nato’s eastern flank countries demand more troops amid Russian aggression

Bucharest, Jun 10 (EFE).- The nine countries on Nato’s eastern flank on Friday called for a stronger presence of the Alliance in their territories, especially in the Black Sea area, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“We aspire to achieve a consolidated presence on the eastern flank, unitary and coherent, robust, credible and sustainable, especially in the Black Sea, the most exposed to the Russian threat,” Romanian president, Klaus Iohannis, said at the end of the B9 Summit held in Bucharest.

Iohannis, who co-chaired the summit with his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda, added that Nato should be able to defend “every inch of its territory.”

Leaders of the B9 said they would bring forward their demand to the Nato Summit in Madrid on June 29 and 30 and ask the Alliance to increase the number of troops on the eastern flank from 1,000 to 3,000.

“We want to move from forward presence to forward defense,” Duda said.

Since 2017, Nato has established four multinational battalion groups in Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Alliance deployed an additional battalion group in Romania.

The B9 is made up of Poland, Romania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria. EFE

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