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Biden announces to Stoltenberg that the US will increase its military deployment in Europe: “It will serve to strengthen our collective security”

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has met with the President of the United States, Joe Biden, at the Atlantic Alliance summit in Madrid. “I want to thank you for the meeting this morning. I know you have a big agenda. This is a historic summit, we have been talking about it for over a year, and now we are here to approve NATO’s new strategic concept and reaffirm the unity and determination of our Alliance to defend every inch of NATO territory. Article 5 says that an attack against one is an attack against all. And at this summit we will also welcome Sweden and Finland, who have decided to move from neutrality to NATO. This is going to make NATO stronger,” Biden begins.

“Today I am announcing that the United States will enhance its defense posture in Europe to respond to challenges and the security environment and will also serve to strengthen our collective security. Earlier this year we sent another 20,000 troops to Europe to strengthen the Alliance and to respond to Russian moves. We will continue to strengthen this position in consultation with our allies. Here in Spain we are going to work with our ally to increase the destroyers that we have in Spain at the Rota naval base, which will go from four to six”, recalls Biden, who already announced yesterday to the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, his intention to increase the number of destroyers, which must be approved by the Congress of Deputies. “In Poland we are going to create a headquarters to strengthen our collaboration with NATO. We are going to have the rotating brigade with 3,000 soldiers and 3,000 employees also in Romania, we are going to improve our rotational deployments in the Baltic states and we are going to send another two squadrons to the United Kingdom and more air defense capabilities in Germany and Italy”, details Biden. .

In other words, Biden has announced that to the two new destroyers that he is going to send to the Rota base, more resources will be added in Poland, Romania, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and in the Baltic countries (Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania). Biden has recalled that his country has already reinforced his presence on European soil, reaching 100,000 soldiers. And to this must be added a permanent brigade headquarters in Poland, a rotating brigade of some 3,000 military personnel in Romania, two new squadrons of F-35 aircraft in the United Kingdom, a reinforcement of the rotating air force in the Baltic and an increase of anti-aircraft defenses in Italy and Germany.

“NATO is needed more than ever, so I want to thank Jens for his work to strengthen NATO,” Biden tells Stoltenberg, who now takes the floor. “We have such unwavering support from the United States for Ukraine, and just today [el presidente de Ucrania, Volodímir] Zelensky is going to address the members of NATO”, thanks Stoltenberg, who speaks of a “historic and transformative summit”. Stoltenberg announces: “We are going to invite Finland and Sweden to join NATO, and this shows that the doors of NATO are open and this shows that the president [de Rusia, Vladímir] Putin has not managed to close the doors of NATO. And this shows that he has not got what he wanted. He wanted less NATO and we are going to have more NATO.”