He announced that NATO leaders will decide, at the Madrid summit, which begins Wednesday, to transform the Response Force and raise its 300,000 troops to a high level of readiness to confront the threat posed by “well over” Russia. general secretary of the atlantic alliance
“I believe the Allies will make it clear in Madrid that they see Russia as the greatest and most direct threat to our security,” said Norway’s Jens Stoltenberg, presenting the summit’s agenda.
This summit will be a turning point and very important decisions will be made.” “We will strengthen our tactical groups in the east of the alliance to the brigade level,” he said.
Eight tactical groups have already been formed. Its centers are in Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria. And he announced that they would be reinforced by “predetermined” units in other Alliance countries called to intervene in countries where heavy weapons would be pre-deployed.
The alliance will also transform its “Response Force” of 40,000 troops, increasing the number of highly-ready troops “well above” 300,000, he added.
“Together, these measures represent the biggest overhaul of our defense and collective existence since the Cold War. And we must invest more in that,” warned Jens Stoltenberg.
However, the secretary-general did not elaborate on the origin of the additional forces or how they might be deployed.
NATO allies committed to dedicate 2% of their GDP to defense spending in 2024, but only nine out of 30 members achieved this target in 2022 (Greece, United States, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, United Kingdom, Latvia, Croatia and Slovakia) ) ).
According to data released by NATO this Monday, France is 1.90%, Italy 1.54%, Germany 1.44% and the summit host country Spain 1.01%, the penultimate member of the list is Luxembourg (0.58%). ) in front of.
“To respond to the threat, that 2% target is no longer a ceiling but a floor,” said Jens Stoltenberg.
“Nineteen allies have clear plans to achieve the target by 2024, and the other five have made concrete commitments,” he said.
source: Noticias
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