Baltics ask for NATO battalions to be reinforced with air, naval forces – ForMin Linkevičius

Linkevičius and his Latvian and Estonian counterparts on Wednesday discussed this issue with John Bolton, US President Donald Trump‘s new national security adviser.

“We now have forward-presence forces, and the limited, but multinational contingent is support for our security. We are speaking not only about land forces, but we want that in the future there is at least a prospect that both naval and air forces are included in this”, he told BNS by phone from Washington.

NATO’s multinational battalions were deployed to Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland in 2017 in what the Alliance says is a response to Russia’s aggressive actions in Ukraine and the Baltic Sea region.

In the run-up to NATO’s July summit, the Baltic ministers and Bolton discussed possibilities for accelerating the decision-making in the Alliance and the movement of forces within the bloc.

The ministers also asked for greater US attention to Baltic air defense.

“There are gaps in our capabilities, (…) air defense, for example, and we can hardly fill them with national capabilities, although we devote attention and resources to this,” Linkevičius said.

“We expect understanding and help from NATO, the United States in these areas,” he added.