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NATO keeps mum on 'Baltic brigade' request: Lithuania
 by Staff Writers
 Vilnius (AFP) July 1, 2015


US warns of Russia, China military threat amid growing global chaos
Washington (AFP) July 1, 2015 - America's new military strategy singles out states like China and Russia as aggressive and threatening to US security interests, while warning of growing technological challenges and worsening global stability.

A somber report released Wednesday by General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warns of a "low but growing" probability of the United States fighting a war with a major power, with "immense" consequences.

Russia has "repeatedly demonstrated that it does not respect the sovereignty of its neighbors and it is willing to use force to achieve its goals," the 2015 National Military Strategy says.

"Russia's military actions are undermining regional security directly and through proxy forces."

It points to Russian troop presence in the Ukraine conflict, though Moscow denies it has deployed its military in eastern Ukraine to bolster a separatist insurgency.

And the report expresses concern about states developing advanced technological capabilities that are causing the US military to lose its edge in that field.

"When applied to military systems, this diffusion of technology is challenging competitive advantages long held by the United States such as early warning and precision strike," the paper says.

In addition to China and Russia, the paper also includes Iran and North Korea -- highlighting their nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities -- in a list of countries that pose "serious security concerns" to America and its allies.

"Since the last national military strategy was published four years ago, global disorder has trended upward while some of our comparative advantages have begun to erode," Dempsey told reporters.

The 2011 report spoke little of Russia.

"China's actions are adding tension to the Asia-Pacific region," the document states, in reference to China's land reclamation efforts to build islands in the contested South China Sea to boost its military and civilian presence.

America's enormous military has an annual budget of about $600 billion, dwarfing that of any other nation.

And faced with non-state adversaries like the self-proclaimed Islamic State group that has seized significant portions of Iraq and Syria, Dempsey warned of long and complex fights ahead.

"Future conflicts will come more rapidly, last longer, and take place on a much more technically challenging battlefield," he wrote in the foreword to the report.

Violent extremist groups "pose an immediate threat to transregional security by coupling readily available technologies with extremist ideologies," the report states.

NATO has vowed to hold "continuous" military exercises in eastern Europe to deter Russia but has yet to respond to a request by Baltic states for a permanent brigade, Lithuania said Wednesday.

In May, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia formally asked NATO's top commander to deploy a "permanent rotational" battalion-sized unit in each country amid concerns triggered by Russia's military resurgence.

NATO has so far refused to approve a substantial permanent deployment, with some saying it could breach a 1997 agreement with Russia and trigger an arms race.

Lithuania's military spokesman Captain Mindaugas Neimontas confirmed to AFP Wednesday that US General Philip M. Breedlove sent Vilnius a classified document "several weeks ago" vowing that NATO's military drills would continue without considerable breaks.

"NATO's military exercises programme in the region (will be) continuous, that is, exercises will be held without major intervals," he added.

Lithuania's Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told AFP Wednesday that "even if allied forces are not called permanent but are permanently rotated, we are happy about it."

"Discussions about numbers and the size of units are continuing at the working level," he said.

Lithuania's top military man, Lieutenant General Jonas Vytautas Zukas, said he was happy that "NATO troops will be training in the Baltic Sea and on its land without major interruptions".

"We want the required level of deterrence in our region to be ensured on a continuous basis. How this goal is achieved is not that important", he said in a Wednesday statement.

Currently, Lithuania is hosting over 600 troops from the United States, Germany, Portugal, Norway and Italy participating in military drills and NATO's long-term Baltic air police mission.

Last month, the US pledged to deploy unmanned heavy weapons, including tanks, in the Baltic states as well as Bulgaria, Romania and Poland.

Russia has denounced the NATO moves as Cold War-style provocations while upgrading its own armed forces, including a pledge to deploy more than 40 new nuclear ballistic missiles this year.

The Baltic republics with a combined population of six million were annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 and remained under Moscow's thumb until 1991.

They joined the EU and NATO in 2004 and now fear that Moscow could try to destabilise them to test NATO's commitment to collective defence.

Russia's Prosecutor General's office said Tuesday it was reviewing the legality of the independence of the three Baltic countries, drawing furious reactions from Baltic leaders.

The Kremlin and Russian foreign minister said they were unaware of the initiative.


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