NATO plans to assign additional forces to defend the Baltic States, Reuters reports. Military sources revealed that Germany and the Netherlands had agreed to assign the 1 German-Netherlands Corps (1GNC), based in the German city of Münster, to the defence of Estonia and Latvia. The move would facilitate the rapid deployment of forces into the region in the event of a war with Russia, the sources said. At present, NATO forces in the three Baltic States and northern Poland are under the command of the Multinational Corps Northeast, headquartered in the Polish city of Szczecin.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump announced that the US would withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany and deploy 5,000 more troops to Poland, while the US Department of Defence cancelled a planned deployment of 4,000 troops to Poland, The Military Times reported. The contradictory announcements seemed to confuse Baltic and Polish leaders, LRT, BNS, and ERR reported. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said that deploying more US troops to Poland was “the most effective deterrent” and “the cheapest way to ensure peace on the continent,” BNS reported.