BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) – Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht supports NATO’s plans for a long-term reinforcement of the eastern flank. “Even if there are no indications so far that the alliance’s territory will be attacked, we cannot completely rule it out and we have to be prepared,” said the SPD politician on Wednesday at the sidelines of a NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels. After the short-term decisions, it is now important to talk about medium- and long-term planning.
“It is very important to me that we now discuss this very intensively: What is credible deterrence? And what is required for it?” Lambrecht added. “We will do this very intensively over the next few weeks so that we can decide on a medium-term and long-term strategy for NATO in the summer.”
Lambrecht was rather reluctant to comment on the dimensions proposed by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg for strengthening the eastern flank. “You still have to talk very carefully about whether this size is actually necessary,” she said. It is important that troops can be deployed quickly and without long preparation times.
Stoltenberg’s proposals are classified as secret. As several diplomats from the German Press Agency confirmed, from the Russian point of view they would probably violate the NATO-Russia Founding Act. Through them, NATO has committed itself, among other things, to refraining from permanently stationing “substantial combat troops” in the eastern alliance area. However, diplomats point out that the commitment was made in 1997 on condition that the security environment continued to develop positively. This is also evident from the basic file./aha/DP/eas