Ashton Carter
The US will deploy heavy weapons in central and eastern Europe for
the first time, Washington said yesterday, in the midst of the worst
standoff between Russia and the West since the Cold War, triggered by
the crisis in Ukraine.
"We will temporarily stage one armoured brigade combat team's
vehicles and associated equipment in countries in central and eastern
Europe," US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said at a joint press
conference with three Baltic defence ministers on the eve of NATO
ministerial talks.
"This pre-positioned European activity set includes tanks, infantry
fighting vehicles, artillery," he said, adding that Estonia, Lithuania,
Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania and Poland had "agreed to host company- to
battalion-sized elements of this equipment" which would be "moved around
the region for training and exercises."
"While we do not seek a cold, let alone a hot war with Russia, we will defend our allies," Carter added.
The US embassy in Warsaw said the "temporary" deployment would
include approximately "250 tanks, Bradleys, and self-propelled
howitzers, and associated armoured brigade combat team equipment in
Baltic and Central European countries."
"The American move sends a signal to both Russia, US allies and other
global powers that the US is a leading global military power able to
counter Russian threats in the region -- that it's not a power in
decline," Marcin Terlikowski, a security analyst with the Polish
Institute of International Affairs (PISM), told AFP.
The US announcement comes as Nato vowed Monday to step up its
military presence in eastern Europe against the backdrop of the conflict
in Ukraine.
Ukrainian rebels yesterday accused government forces of killing three
civilians in attacks launched hours before the start of crunch talks in
Paris on ways to halt the 15-month separatist war.
Attending exercises in Poland last week, Nato head Jens Stoltenberg
said the alliance was "implementing the biggest reinforcement of our
collective defences since the end of the Cold War", after Russia
announced that it would expand its nuclear arsenal.
Moscow made the announcement after reports about the US plans to deploy heavy weapons to eastern Europe emerged.
But some European Nato allies, like Germany, have been sceptical
about any substantial permanent deployment, saying it could breach a
1997 agreement between Nato and Russia.
That agreement however does not appear to rule out temporary Nato
troop rotations or pre-positioning alliance equipment along its eastern
flank.
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