President Joe Biden is strengthening the U.S. military’s presence in Eastern Europe, as the threat from Russia remains at the forefront of the international community’s mind.
The president, who is in Madrid, Spain, for a NATO summit, announced the establishment of a permanent V Corps Headquarters Forward Command Post in Poland, while the military will maintain an additional rotational Brigade Combat Team in Europe, which will be positioned in Romania.
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There will be enhanced rotational deployments to Baltic countries, the United States and Spain agreed to increase the number of destroyers stationed in Rota from four to six, the U.S. will station two squadrons of F-35 fighter jets in the United Kingdom, and the U.S. will station additional air defense systems in Germany and Italy, according to a White House fact sheet.
“This is a significant decision precisely because of the changed security environment and the recognition that the United States needs to have a longer-term capability to sustain our presence, our training, our activities, and our support to the countries of the eastern flank,” said Celeste Wallander, assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs for the Department of Defense.
This week’s NATO Summit comes as Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its fifth month. In the days before the summit, Russia’s military launched a missile attack that hit a busy mall in central Ukraine, killing nearly 20 people at a time when more than a thousand people were inside. Western and Ukrainian leaders decried it as a terror attack and war crime. Russia denied hitting the mall and disputed that there were scores of fatalities.
“The United States and our allies, we’re going to step up,” Biden said at the beginning of the summit. “We’re proving that NATO is more needed now than it ever has been, and it’s as important as it ever has been.”
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Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Biden has upped the military’s presence in Europe from roughly 80,000 troops to more than 100,000.
Ahead of the summit, Turkey, Finland, and Sweden agreed to a deal that would end the first’s opposition to the latter two’s entrance into the alliance. Turkey had been the only country standing in the way of Finland and Sweden’s ascension into NATO based on concerns about support for terrorism.
