- Reaction score
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A "trip-wire" battalion in each Baltic state's capital?
Military.com
Military.com
Baltic Nations Request Permanent NATO Troop Presence
Associated Press | May 14, 2015
VILNIUS, Lithuania -- The three Baltic countries -- Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -- are asking NATO to permanently deploy ground troops to their nations as a deterrent against an increasingly assertive Russia.
The countries' defense chiefs requested a brigade-size unit of NATO troops -- one battalion of 700-800 troops in each country -- in a joint letter this week to the supreme allied commander in Europe, said Capt. Mindaugas Neimontas, a spokesman for Lithuania's chief of defense.
"It is necessary because of the security situation," Neimontas told The Associated Press on Thursday. "It's not getting better in our region, so it will be a deterrent."
The Baltic countries -- former Soviet republics that regained independence amid the collapse of the Soviet Union over two decades ago -- have been alarmed by Moscow's intervention in Ukraine and the increasing activity of Russian forces in the Baltic Sea.
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