7/23/2023 0 Comments One lonely outpost priceThe NATO summit agreed to set up a new rapid-reaction force with 5,000 troops as a spearhead to deploy to a conflict zone within days.Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania wanted a larger and permanent NATO deployment in eastern Europe to deter Russia – up to two NATO divisions, or 20,000 to 30,000 troops. “I think it’s a good move because I’m afraid of what Russia is doing. Physiotherapist Justyna Krol lives across the street from the Szczecin base and said it was fine with her that NATO was going to expand. This is a signal to Russia that you shouldn’t mess with Poland because it’s part of NATO.” ![]() “All the endangered countries should stick together. “I definitely feel a threat from Russia and it’s good that Poland is a member of NATO,” said Kamil Szanter, an 18-year-old student in Szczecin. In neighbouring Germany there are tensions at times about the presence of NATO bases and fears of those towns being primary targets in any conventional war. There is strong pro-NATO sentiment outside the base on the streets of Szczecin, an industrial port city of 400,000 that was German until the end of World War Two and Swedish in the 17th and 18th centuries. There is also a broader connotation to the move.Szczecin might be a tongue-twister for English speakers but Winston Churchill mentioned its German name, Stettin, in his famous 1946 speech when he defined an “Iron Curtain” that was dividing Europe “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic.” RIGHT STEP AT RIGHT TIMEĮastern European NATO members appealed to the alliance well before the Wales summit to station forces permanently on their territory to deter any Russian attack. ![]() “The message sent from the summit is very important not only for Poles and Czechs, and the Baltic countries but also for the rest of Europe: Our countries share a common security policy in this region and they are ready to stand together in the event of conflict to protect our territory,” the Polish commander said. “It’s great news for me and for the countries of eastern and central Europe that the political leaders of the NATO countries took the decision to increase our combat readiness,” said Lieutenant General Boguslaw Samol, the commander of the base known as the Multinational Corps Northeast, in an interview. However the NATO moves to bolster the Szczecin base are of considerable symbolic importance and are having a galvanising effect in former Warsaw Pact countries that are most alarmed by Russia’s annexation of Crimea and fighting in eastern Ukraine. These might appear to be minor changes unlikely to serve as a significant deterrent to ambitions Moscow may have to try to unite Russian-speaking enclaves in parts of eastern Europe whose countries joined NATO after the Cold War. NATO decided at its summit in Wales last week to raise the combat readiness of the command post and to double its size from 200 officers - from the United States, Germany and 12 eastern European nations - to about 400. ![]() In fact, the alliance’s lonely outpost at Szczecin in western Poland has created such a tiny footprint over the past 15 years that barely anyone noticed it even existed.īut it is about to get an upgrade in response to what NATO sees as Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. REUTERS/Cezary Aszkielowicz/Agencja Gazeta/Files A gate to the headquarters of Multinational Corps Northeast, part of the NATO Force Structure, is seen at the Baltic Barracks in Szczecin, northwest of Poland, in this Septemfile photo.
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