The NATO countries have agreed on new plans to ward off possible Russian attacks on alliance territory. The documents were accepted in a written procedure one day before the start of the summit in Lithuania, as the German Press Agency learned from several diplomats. The decision is to be confirmed again this Tuesday by the heads of state and government and then officially announced.
The total more than 4,000-page defense plans describe in detail, according to information from the German Press Agency, how critical locations in Alliance territory are protected by deterrence and defended in an emergency should. For this purpose, it is also defined which military capabilities are necessary. In addition to land, air and sea forces, cyber and space capabilities are also included.
At the NATO summit last year, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that in the future 300,000 soldiers should be kept on high alert for possible NATO deployments. So far, the NRF intervention force has been primarily intended for rapid crisis operations in NATO. The member states are currently providing around 40,000 soldiers for this.
In addition to possible attacks by Russia are threats from terrorist groups are also the basis for planning. The background is the experience with attacks by the terror network al-Qaeda on the USA on September 11, 2001, but also the pressure from countries like Turkey, which repeatedly has to deal with acts of terrorism by the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party PKK.