Local Editor

NATO countries are discussing increasing the number of troops stationed in members bordering Russia and putting them under formal alliance command.

The discussion comes under the pretext of a new effort to deter aggression from Moscow, according to diplomats and military officers.

Under one plan, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would have a battalion in Poland and each of the three Baltic states-roughly 800 to 1,000 soldiers in each unit. A more modest version would have a single NATO battalion in the area.

While the US and other allies are supportive, German officials in particular have expressed reservations, telling the allies in private discussions that they don't want to treat Moscow as a permanent enemy or lock it out of Europe, despite the frictions over Ukraine and other provocations.

NATO officials say Berlin is unlikely to back the biggest deployment, but could support the more modest increase.

Moscow in turn has said repeatedly it views NATO as a security threat.

Even if the plan is approved, NATO would still have only a small force on its eastern flank-hardly enough to stop an invasion. pledge.

NATO officials say the new plans are at an early stage. Nothing has been formally presented to its North Atlantic Council, which requires consensus to approve alliance actions, and no deployments are likely before the July summit of NATO leaders in Warsaw.

But senior allied officials say there is a growing agreement that more needs to be done to show Russia that NATO is committed to defend its territory. "There is a sense if we are going to have a long-term defense and deterrence strategy we need to discuss what more we need to do beyond our readiness action plan," said Alexander Vershbow, the NATO deputy secretary-general.

US officials have said they are willing put the 150 US soldiers currently in each of the Baltic states and in Poland under NATO command, and are open to rotating in additional troops from the US.

The plan would also require other countries that have deployed troops there to agree to a NATO command. The UK has about 150 troops there and Germany is deploying up to 200 soldiers.

US troops from the 173rd Airborne Brigade pass through Vilnius, Lithuania, on Saturday. The U.S. has been rotating troops to Lithuania since spring of 2014. ENLARGE
"We are not picking a fight; we aren't trying to provoke him [Putib]," said a senior US military official. "But we are trying to make sure he understands we are engaged in Europe, we are militarily capable in Europe and we are going to defend NATO. That is the message."

Alexander Grushko, the Russian ambassador to NATO, said the alliance was already violating a 1994 agreement not to permanently station troops on Russia's border, and the idea of increasing the numbers was provocative.

"From political point of view these military activities are aimed at creating a new ‘Iron Curtain' in Europe," Grushko said. "NATO military planning generates confrontational approaches to security issues that in our view should belong to the past." He said the "creeping increase in NATO's military presence on our frontiers" was testing Russian patience.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team