Britain, France Deploy Fighter Jets for NATO Baltic Patrols
Britain and France deployed eight fighter jets on Monday to reinforce NATO air patrols over the Baltics as tensions rise with Russia over Ukraine, officials said.
Four British Typhoon jets arrived in Lithuania to start their mission while four French Rafale jets touched down in Malbork, northeast Poland, their defense ministries said.
British defense minister Philip Hammond said the move would "provide reassurance to our NATO allies in eastern Europe and the Baltic states."
"In the wake of recent events in Ukraine, it is right that NATO takes steps to reaffirm very publicly its commitment to the collective security of its members," Hammond said.
Around 70 French military personnel have been deployed to Malbork in support of the new planes, French military spokesman Colonel Gilles Jaron said.
Britain and France have each also deployed AWACS early-warning aircraft to patrol Polish and Romanian airspace in recent weeks.
The Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, which gained independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991, joined NATO in 2004 but lack sufficient aircraft to police their own skies, so larger NATO members take turns patrolling their airspace.
NATO announced in April that it would step up its defenses in eastern Europe due to the growing crisis in Ukraine and Russia's absorption of Crimea.
It has increased fighter jet patrols and also deployed ships in the Baltic Sea and eastern Mediterranean.
The United States announced last week it was deploying 600 airborne troops for exercises in Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in a show of solidarity with NATO members bordering Russia.
Later on Monday, American troops landed in Estonia, rounding out the 600-man force sent by Washington to Poland and the Baltic states to allay concerns over the escalating Ukraine crisis.
"The transatlantic link is not something that Estonians take for granted. Rather, we see it as a vital element of security in an unsecure world," Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said at the welcome ceremony.
"This is why we so appreciate Allied boots on the ground here."
Around 150 troops from the 173rd Airborne Brigade landed at the Amari air base in western Estonia. They will be stationed at the Baltic seaport of Paldiski.
Another 450 soldiers already arrived in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland over the last week after the United States said it had decided to increase its presence in the region to reassure its NATO allies and partners.
"The only military danger in the Baltic Sea region is Russia. Russia does not recognize neutrality: you are either with them or against them," Estonian army chief Riho Terras said at the weekend.
"That being the case, the presence of western armed forces in our region is of vital importance," he said, calling on soldiers from other NATO member states to follow suit.
Source: Agence France Presse
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