NATO's Baltic presence will be increased, Polish PM says

2025-01-14 15:01 update: 2025-01-15, 18:02
Fot. PAP/Piotr Nowak
Fot. PAP/Piotr Nowak
NATO will "radically strengthen" its presence on the Baltic Sea following a series of communication and power cable breaches, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said after a meeting of regional NATO members in Helsinki on Tuesday.

The Helsinki meeting was attended by eight NATO members, the NATO secretary general and a European Commission top official.

"The increasing Russian aggression... on the Baltic Sea forces us to make decisions which are in a sense unprecedented," Tusk told a press conference following the meeting. "In this case it is a radically strengthened NATO presence on the Baltic Sea."

He said that this did not mean "the establishment of a new way of operation," such as a separate Baltic Sea policing mission.

"However, we consider NATO's reaction as sufficient at this stage," Tusk said, adding that the reaction would be the reinstatement of the Baltic Sentry 25 operation for 90 days.

"Everyone present at today's meeting pointed out that this can't be limited to 90 days, that countries on the Baltic Sea, including Poland, need constant and effective security control, and the co-hosts of the meeting... agreed with that," Tusk continued. "It's 90 days, but there's an obvious option to extend the strengthened military control on the Baltic Sea."

However, it has not yet been decided how individual countries would participate in these activities.

Turning to EU-US relations, another topic of the meeting, Tusk said that the participants agreed that the relationship was invaluable.

Tusk said the discussion focused on "the global situation related to Greenland and President (Donald - PAP) Trump's plans related to Greenland."

Trump has recently called again on Denmark to sell Greenland to America, citing national security concerns amid increasing assertiveness of Russia and China.

Tusk said that "Greenland is still part of Denmark," but added that "everyone here is aware... that Europe should be more rather than less united, that we should show solidarity, not only towards Ukraine, but in general as a political entity and that EU nation-states should support one another in every critical situation."

Tusk said that all attendees at the meeting were aware of the significance of cooperation between Europe and the United States, "regardless of how difficult it can be today, of how much controversy some statements from the new (US - PAP) administration and some of its plans cause, including those related to Canada and Greenland, but also some activities in Europe, influencing the election situation in some countries."

Elon Musk, a tech billionaire aide of Trump, has recently been criticising some European governments and expressing support for right-wing parties.

"All this causes some concern and is controversial," Tusk said.

"But all my interlocutors agreed with the stance that is obvious for Poland, that the Europe-United States relations are invaluable," he said. "And that neither Ukraine, nor Europe nor the United States - no-one will be able to protect this area of civilisation against aggressive behaviour of other global powers if we are divided and conflicted." 

The Helsinki meeting chaired by the Finnish President Alexander Stubb was also attended by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Vice-President of the European Commission Henna Virkkunen, the presidents of Latvia and Lithuania, and the heads of governments of Estonia, Denmark, Sweden and Germany. (PAP)

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