Eastern hopes for NATO bases stymied by Russia

Published 10:06 am Thursday, September 4, 2014

WARSAW, Poland — On the eve of a NATO summit, President Barack Obama gave the alliance’s eastern European members a soaring assurance of protection from any Russian threat. But Poland and the Baltic states are seeking more than lofty words: They want permanent bases with troops on their land.

And they probably won’t get that.

While the request from Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia will be on the agenda at the summit in Wales, European heavyweight Germany and other members strongly oppose it. They argue that it would violate a 1997 agreement with Russia in which NATO pledges not to put “substantial combat forces” in central and eastern Europe.

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The eastern NATO members suspect, however, that the accord with Russia is just a cover for not wanting to further damage economic relations. And Poland argues that the agreement, known as the Founding Act, has already been invalidated by Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Speaking in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, Obama declared on Wednesday: “You lost your independence once before. With NATO, you’ll never lose it again.” While that will be a heartening message for Poland and the Baltic states, there were no details of the kind of action that might back it up.

Germany has been specific about what it will not mean. In Latvia last month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there will be “no permanent stationing of combat troops” on the alliance’s eastern edge. While saying that she understands the concerns of the eastern members, she stressed that “we have … a NATO-Russia Act that for the moment I do not want to overstep.”

Days later Poland’s defense minister, Tomasz Siemoniak, seemed resigned that the Sept. 4-5 summit would agree on lesser measures, such as rotations of NATO troops into the region and the pre-positioning of supplies there so NATO could react more quickly if attacked.

“This concept is OK with us. We don’t want to make a fetish of the word ‘permanent,’” Siemoniak said in an interview with the Rzeczpospolita newspaper.

NATO leaders are expected to agree on the creation of a rapid response force, a military unit that would be capable of deploying quickly to Eastern Europe. The plan includes the pre-positioning of equipment and logistics facilities in the region that would enable NATO to react quickly.

But it is less than the two heavy combat brigades that Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski had called for in the spring — and it is clear that many Eastern Europeans are bitter.