NATO chief confirms plan for US military site in Poland

The Wall Street Journal last month reported that NATO was planning to plow funds into a facility for stationing US military equipment at Powidz Air Base in the west-centre of Poland amid fears of an increasingly assertive Russia.

Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday that NATO member countries would earmark USD 260 million for the project.

“The investment in the infrastructure project in central Poland is part of a broader effort to strengthen military mobility,” Stoltenberg said during a news conference at NATO’s Brussels headquarters on Monday.

"By pre-positioning equipment we will increase the readiness of our forces ...,” he added.

Stoltenberg also said that the “major, significant investment” project “also shows how NATO is working with the US—because this is a bilateral US presence … underpinned by a NATO investment good for NATO, good for all of us.”

The new facility is expected to house armoured vehicles, ammunition and weapons for a brigade of troops.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the move is in line with Washington’s strategy for quickly deploying troops in Europe in case of a Russian incursion.

Work to build the site will start in the summer and take two years to complete, the US newspaper reported.

Amid fears of Russian aggression following Moscow's annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014, NATO decided at a Warsaw summit in July 2016 to deploy four rotating multinational battalions to Poland and the Baltic states.

Warsaw has in recent months been making intense efforts to secure a boosted American troop presence on NATO’s eastern flank.

Poland last month marked two decades since it became a member of the Western military alliance.

(gs/pk)

Source: IAR, wsj.com