NATO Chief Says Bloc Seeing Biggest Expansion Of Defense System Since Cold War

RIGA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th November, 2021) NATO has been consistently taking steps toward the largest expansion of its collective defense system since the end of the Cold War, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday.

"And over the last years, we have actually implemented the largest and the biggest reinforcements of our collective defense since the end of the Cold War, with the four battlegroups in the three Baltic countries and Poland, with more naval presence, continued air policing, and also higher readiness of forces," Stoltenberg said at a joint press conference following a meeting with Latvian President Egils Levits.

As part of its security efforts, NATO has tripled the size of its response force to over 40,000 troops and increased the number of military exercises in the region, Stoltenberg noted. He also expressed the bloc's solidarity with the Baltic states and Poland concerning the migrant crisis on the border with Belarus, which he accused of using "hybrid tactics" against NATO allies.

Stoltenberg met Levits ahead of the NATO foreign ministers' meeting, set to take place in Riga from November 30 to December 1.