NATO Plans to Ensure Permanent Military Presence at its Borders, Stoltenberg

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced in an interview with The Telegraph that the military leadership is working on a plan to ensure a permanent presence of troops at the alliance's eastern borders in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

According to Stoltenberg, NATO is "restarting" a plan that will change the role of troops in Eastern European member countries, making it not only a deterrent factor in the event of a Russian attack, but also a comprehensive means of deterrence.

A decision on this matter is expected to be made at the NATO summit scheduled for June, he said. "We have time until the summit to make a more long-term decision," the source quoted Stoltenberg as saying.

"This is part of the rebooting we need to do, meaning we need to transition from deterrence... which is the current doctrine, to something new that is more related to denial or deterring through defense," he added.

Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley stated during hearings in Congress on Tuesday that he would consider establishing permanent NATO bases in countries such as Poland, Romania, and the Baltic states to ensure rotational troop presence.

This week, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced that no decision has yet been made regarding either the deployment of permanent presence on the front lines or the placement of additional rotational forces, or a combination of both options.