Stoltenberg said several NATO battle groups in Eastern Europe would be beefed up at “brigade level” — tactical units of thousands of soldiers — which the bloc’s civilian leader said were intended to send a clear message of deterrence to NATO. Russia.
“I am sure that Moscow, President Putin understands our collective security guarantees, understands the consequences of attacking a NATO-allied country,” Stoltenberg told reporters at a news conference in Brussels.
“It will trigger an Alliance-wide response. And to support that message, we are increasing NATO’s presence.”
What are high availability forces?
NATO High Readiness Forces are a combination of land, sea and air assets designed to deploy rapidly in the event of attack. It has steadily grown in size from 13,000 soldiers to 40,000 since 2014.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many of these forces were placed in “high readiness” for the first time. Multinational battle groups are now active in several countries on the Russian border, including Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland.
There are additional plans to deploy more battle groups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.
Agreement would be made at the NATO summit
The measures announced by Stoltenberg are expected to be approved at the NATO summit to be held June 29-30 in Madrid, following the G7 meeting of industrial democracies currently taking place in Germany.