Although the Baltic states and Poland are asking for more NATO troops, divisions within the alliance are emerging over disagreements whether the Kremlin's failures in Ukraine mean Russia cannot threaten the alliance.
According to the Washington Post, countries like France and Italy are “more cautious about robust new commitments in Eastern Europe, wary of signing on to large deployments that would be costly and would divert troops from other areas”.
“Russia’s direct military aggression against NATO allies cannot be excluded,” according to a proposal by the Baltic states seen by the Washington Post. “Russia can rapidly mass military forces against NATO’s eastern border and confront the alliance with a short war and fait accompli.”
Under the proposed plan seen by the Post, a division of troops would have its weapons, including air defences, “prepositioned” in the Baltics and Poland, with roughly a brigade of about 6,000 troops – up from the current 2,000 – deployed in each nation.
Meanwhile, as soon as the war in Ukraine is over, some western countries would “be quite eager to return to the status quo ante”, according to one official speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Some of the declarations and the general spirit that we see right now might just disappear.”
The decision whether to send more troops to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania or Poland must be made at the NATO summit in Madrid in June.
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