NATO has defense plans in regard to Russia for all neighboring NATO member countries including Poland and the Baltic republics, Director of the NATO Information Center in Moscow Robert Pszczel said on Monday.
According to confidential U.S. diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks, NATO's Military Committee agreed in January to expand Eagle Guardian, the Alliance's contingency plan for the reinforcement and defense of Poland, to also include the defense and reinforcement of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
"It is not a revelation that these plans do exist," Pszczel told reporters in Moscow. "But what we promised to each other [during NATO-Russia summit] in Lisbon when we said that NATO does not regard Russia as an enemy or a threat is also a reality."
"Your country [Russia] also has defense plans and if you asked your friends in the Defense Ministry about these plans you would have been surprised if you heard a negative answer," he said.
The leaked cables indicated that in the event of a Russian attack on the Baltic states, NATO would send in nine divisions from the United States, Britian, Germany and Poland. Ports in Germany and northern Poland would host marines, as well as U.S. warships.
Washington also suggested boosting Poland's defense against Russia through relocation of a Naval Special Warfare unit to Gdansk and Gdynia in the Baltic Sea, as well as through quarterly rotations of F-16 fighters and C-130 military transport aircraft in Poland.
The United States has already opened a temporary military base near the northern Polish town of Morag, 80 km (50 miles) from the Russian border. The base, which will become permanent from 2012, hosts U.S. Patriot missiles and may deploy SM-3 interceptor missiles in the future.
Moscow was angered by the base's proximity to the Russian Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad.
MOSCOW, December 13 (RIA Novosti)
