In the upcoming July summit for the member countries of the NATO military alliance, the leaders are set to approve secret military plans that would become the response to any potential attack by Russia. The move is seen as harkening back to the days of the Cold War in a major shift in stance.
Reuters reported that NATO countries are set to approve thousands of pages that outline potential plans by the alliance as to how to respond to a Russian attack. The move harkened back to the days of the Cold War and also signaled a major shift in stance as the alliance previously did not see a need to draft large-scale defense plans for decades.
But as the region’s bloodiest war since 1945 taking place in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion in February last year, the alliance has warned that there must already be a plan in place before a potential conflict with an adversary like Russia may happen.
“The fundamental difference between crisis management and collective defense is this: It is not we but our adversary determines the timeline,” said top NATO military official, Admiral Bob Bauer. “We have to prepare for the fact that conflict can present itself at any time.”
In outlining what they referred to as regional plans, NATO will also be giving its member countries guidance on how they can upgrade their forces and logistics.
“Allies will know exactly what forces and capabilities are needed, including where, what, and how to deploy,” said NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg regarding the documents that would be subject to approval. The highly classified documents will assign troops to the defense of certain regions. This will also formalize a process that was triggered by Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014.
Earlier this month, NATO and the British Royal Air Force said that fighter jets from the United Kingdom were scrambled to intercept a Russian military aircraft operating near British airspace north of Scotland. As part of a joint NATO response, the transit by Russian fighter jets was also met with fighter planes from Norway.
Photo: Chuck Kennedy (US Department of State)/Wikimedia Commons(CC by 2.0)