The US is ready to protect the Baltic countries, maintain a military presence in the region

Washington [US], February 17: US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on February 16 that the US was ready to defend the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (Lithuania) if required, and would maintain a military presence in the region.
"We are committed to Article 5, you can be sure," Austin said, referring to the provision in the NATO Charter that requires members of the alliance to defend each other if one of them attacked, according to Reuters.
Speaking in Tallinn, Estonia's capital, after talks with the country's leaders, Austin said the US would continue to maintain a "continuous, rotating" military presence in the Baltic region .
"The United States remains steadfast in its commitment to defend the freedom and sovereignty of its Baltic allies ," the top Pentagon official said at a news conference.
The three Baltic states, neighbors of Russia and Belarus, were once part of the Soviet Union but are now part of NATO and the European Union (EU).
Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said the country was "working to prevent" the possibility of an attack if Russia did not stop in Ukraine.
"Deterrence is the only key word here. This is precisely why NATO is coming up with new regional defense plans that will hopefully be adopted at the NATO summit in Vilnius [Lithuanian capital]." in July," Pevkur said.
Since 2019, the US has deployed groups of about 500 troops and equipment on a rotating basis in Lithuania. Last December, Washington announced the deployment of a platoon of highly mobile artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) and an infantry company in Estonia.
NATO has deployed three multinational battalions in each of the Baltic states since 2017. The permanent presence of these rotating troops serves as a "conduit" for a larger-scale response should Russia invade occupy NATO territory.
Germany has pledged to increase its troops within 10 days in the event of a threat of invasion.
In Tallinn, Austin reiterated that the US would support Ukraine with military equipment and said he expected Russia to continue to suffer heavy losses in numbers with a combat force that is "unequipped and untrained". full".
"This fight will continue to evolve and we will do everything we can, working together to ensure that we are giving them (Ukraine) the means to succeed," he said.
Source: ThanhNien Newspaper