Europe

NATO allies advance plans for east Europe troop deployment

Associated Press
Published | Updated

NATO defense ministers are seated during a meeting of the North Atlantic Council Defense Ministers session at NATO headquarters in Brussels Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. NATO defense ministers are meeting in Brussels to discuss tense relations with Russia, how to help Middle East nations combat extremism and cooperation between the military alliance and the European Union. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert) (The Associated Press)

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg talks during a meeting of the North Atlantic Council Defense Ministers session at NATO headquarters in Brussels Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. NATO defense ministers are meeting in Brussels to discuss tense relations with Russia, how to help Middle East nations combat extremism and cooperation between the military alliance and the European Union. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert) (The Associated Press)

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, right, greets U.S Secretary of Defense Ash Carter prior to a meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Defense Ministers session at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2016. NATO defense ministers met in Brussels to discuss tense relations with Russia, how to help Middle East nations combat extremism and cooperation between the military alliance and the European Union.(AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, pool) (The Associated Press)

Faced with an ever-more belligerent and unpredictable Russia, NATO allies are advancing with plans to deploy thousands of troops and military equipment to the Baltics and Poland.

In recent weeks alone, Russia has moved battleships toward the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas, shifted nuclear-capable missile-launchers into its Kaliningrad enclave neighboring Poland and continued flying bombers down the western European coast.

NATO defense ministers, ending two days of talks in Brussels on Thursday, have been fleshing out contributions to an advance force agreed in July that will be stationed near Russia's borders.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said "we are responding in a measured and responsible way because we are not seeking a new Cold War. We want to keep tensions as low as possible."