Biden to extend presence of US troops in Poland, the Baltic
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US President Joe Biden is set to announce the extension of the authorized changes to troops in the Baltic as well as the increase of US military presence in the region and Spain's Naval base.
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US President Joe Biden gives a statement to the press at G7 summit in Germany
US President Joe Biden intends to announce the extension of some of the increased American troop presence in Poland, and changes to military deployments in several Baltic countries that he authorized prior to the Ukraine war, all while in Europe for a NATO summit with world leaders, according to two defense officials, two former administration officials, and a European official.
The alterations made to the US troops in the Baltics could affect Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. It could mean that new troops will be deployed to the region. While the number of deployments will be minimal and limited, several hundred could remain in Poland more permanently. The White House declined to comment on the topic.
A senior administration official gave a preview of this week's NATO summit and predicted that alliance members "will announce new force posture commitments to strengthen NATO's defense and deterrent posture," adding that “As we have seen in the last number of months, the United States was very quick to surge additional forces to NATO to reassure our allies, especially those on the eastern flank.”
Read more: NATO allies to boost high readiness forces to 'well over 300,000'
Administration officials disclosed that both the US and NATO allies might announce changes to troop distributions. An official also said that Biden might announce increases to US troops in Spain’s Naval Station in Rota adding two more ships to the Naval base in the next few years.
Biden is currently in Germany for the G7 summit and will be heading to Spain for the NATO summit soon after.
Earlier this month, the US also announced a new $450 million US military aid package heading for Ukraine, adding to that the potential to offer Ukraine a new surface-to-air missile system. In addition, on June 14, Pentagon policy chief, Colin Kahl, stated that Ukrainian forces have nearly completed training on High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) delivered by the United States and the United Kingdom.
In response to that statement, Moscow sent a formal diplomatic note to the United States warning that Washington and Brussels' arms shipments were adding fuel to the fire of the war in Ukraine, stressing that this matter could bring upon "unpredictable consequences".
All these changes and announcements came amidst a global call to put an end to the Ukraine conflict and look towards a peaceful solution to be established through diplomacy and negotiations which the US has been hindering by actively pumping Ukraine with weapons.
Read more: Pentagon trained over 23,000 Ukrainian soldiers since 2015: US Gen.
