WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th May, 2022) Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia propose NATO develop a contingency plan to swiftly deploy 20,000 NATO troops to the region in the event either of the countries is engaged in a direct military conflict with Russia, The Washington Post reported citing a confidential joint proposal from the Baltic states.
The report said on Tuesday that the Baltic states fear Russia is capable of rapidly deploying a mass military force against NATO's eastern border to confront the military alliance with a short war and fait accompli.
Earlier in the day, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said Sweden and Finland will jointly apply for NATO membership on Wednesday, officially abandoning the neutral status. Both countries have been considering joining NATO since Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24.
On Monday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO is "changing the situation radically" and that Russia will be looking at all aspects of it when making its own security assessments.
