About 100 aircraft take to the skies in that territory each day, and a total of 27 warships are operating in the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas. At the same time, it is massively reinforcing the security of member countries near Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.Īround 40,000 troops are on standby from Estonia along NATO’s eastern flank with Russia and down to Romania on the Black Sea. It’s sought to avoid being dragged into a wider war with nuclear-armed Russia. NATO, as an organization, does not provide weapons or ammunition to Ukraine. The defense blueprint was revamped after Russia’s war on Ukraine challenged NATO’s traditional security calculus. Under the new plans, NATO commanders will know more clearly what troops and equipment they would have at their disposal and how long it would take to have them in place, officials said. The leaders, meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, “committed to fully resource and regularly exercise these plans to be prepared for high-intensity and multi-domain collective defense.” “Together, this family of plans will significantly improve our ability and readiness to deter and defend against any threats, including on short or no notice, and ensure timely reinforcement of all Allies.”
“Peace in the Euro-Atlantic area has been shattered,” the leaders said in a statement, laying out the twin threats posed by Russia and terrorism. Inspired in part by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the highly-secretive defense plans lay out which of the 31 member countries would be called on to respond an attack anywhere from the Arctic and Baltic Sea regions through the northern Atlantic and south to the Mediterranean and Black Seas.
President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts on Tuesday endorsed the biggest shakeup since the Cold War of the way the military alliance would respond to any attack on its territory by Russia.