On Thursday afternoon, AlertsUSA subscribers were notified that Joe Biden had signed an executive order approving the mobilization of up to 3,000 reserve military personnel for service in the European Command's area of responsibility. This first traunch of reserve soldiers will augment active duty armed forces already in the region as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, a multi-nation effort to bolster the eastern flank of the NATO alliance following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The move comes shortly the end of a two-day NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Since February of last year, the Dept. of Defense has deployed or extended well over 20,000 additional forces to Europe in response to the Ukraine crisis, adding additional air, land, maritime, cyber, and space capabilities. U.S. service members in Europe now number well beyond 100,000.
Readers are reminded that just last week in the run-up to the Vilnius summit, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg highlighted three new regional defense plans that counter the main NATO threats, which are Russia and terrorism. Those plans cover the Atlantic and European Arctic; the Baltic region and central Europe; and the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
As Stoltenberg states:
"To execute these plans, NATO is putting 300,000 troops on higher readiness, including substantial air and naval combat power."
And now the mobilization of reserve forces has begun. As seen following 9/11, and again prior to the invasion of Iraq, this is rarely done in small numbers. More reserve deployments are coming. Something big is on the horizon.
In addition to responding to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, another major topic on NATO's schedule this week were the growing threats from the Indo-Pacific. In his closing remarks at the end of the NATO conference, Jens Stoltenberg stated the following (video at link):
"NATO is a regional Alliance, but we face global challenges.
What happens in Europe matters to the Indo-Pacific, and what happens in the Indo-Pacific matters to North America and Europe.
Beijing’s global assertiveness and Moscow’s war against Ukraine require even closer coordination between NATO, the EU and our Indo-Pacific partners.
We condemn North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes, including its latest missile launch: These violate multiple UN Security Council Resolutions and pose a threat to regional and global security.
NATO is reinforcing our ties with Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea with tailored partnership programmes, including joint work on issues like maritime security, new technologies, cyber, climate change, and resilience.
We will work even more closely together, standing strong for the rules-based international order."
This situation is developing fast. AlertsUSA continues to monitor the situation around the clock and will immediately notify service subscribers of any developments which signal a change the overall threat picture for American citizens as events warrant. |
