NATO should build more permanent military bases in Eastern Europe, including the Baltic states, General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the US Department of Defense, said in testimony to Congress.
“My advice would be to create permanent bases but don’t permanently station [forces], so you get the effect of permanence by rotational forces cycling through permanent bases,” the most senior American commander said, adding that the Baltic states, Romania and Poland would be willing to pay for such bases.
“They’ll build them, they’ll pay for them,” Milley said.
The Baltic states are among the NATO members that spend at least 2 percent GDP on defence. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many, including Lithuania, have pledged to raise military budgets even further.
Milley also said he expected the war in Ukraine to last for a long time
“I do think this is a very protracted conflict and I think it is at least measured in years,” he said.
Milley added that the US and other countries supporting Ukraine will be “involved in this for quite some time”.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that expansion of the US military presence in Eastern Europe was a “work in progress”, adding that the issue will probably be discussed at the NATO summit in June.
NATO troops are already stationed in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Poland, with more due to be deployed to Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.
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