NATO to beef up eastern flank with four more battle groups — Stoltenberg Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg. (Policy Network/Flickr)
This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says the Western alliance will deploy four new battle groups across Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia as part of its response to Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
NATO already has battlegroups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.
“I expect leaders will agree to strengthen NATO’s posture in all domains with major increases of forces in the eastern part of the alliance, on land, in the air, and at sea. The first step is the deployment of four new NATO battle groups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia,” Stoltenberg told journalists in Brussels on March 23.
“This means that we will have eight multinational NATO battle groups all along the Eastern flank from the Baltic to the Black Sea,” Stoltenberg said ahead of an extraordinary NATO summit scheduled for March 24 that will also be attended by U.S. President Joe Biden.
“We face a new reality for our security, so we must reset our deterrence and defense for the longer term,” he said.
