NATO will increase its number of troops in high alert by more than sevenfold to over 300,000, as it prepares to adopt a new stance describing Moscow as a direct threat, the secretary-general says.
Russia's February invasion of Ukraine has caused a major geopolitical shift in the West, prompting Finland and Sweden to apply to join NATO and Ukraine in order to secure the status as a candidate to join the European Union.
Russia has walked away from the partnership and dialogue that NATO has tried to establish with Russia for many years, says Jens Stoltenberg, NATO secretary-general in Brussels ahead of a NATO summit in Madrid later this week.
They have chosen confrontation instead of dialogue. We regret that, but of course we need to respond to that reality. The NATO summit on June 28 to 30 comes at a pivotal moment for the alliance after failures in Afghanistan and internal discord during the era of former US president Donald Trump, who threatened to pull Washington out of the alliance.
In the future, NATO would have well over 300,000 troops on high alert compared to the 40,000 troops currently made up the NATO's existing force, the NATO Response ForceNATO Response Force NRF. The new force model is intended to replace the NRF and provide a larger pool of high-readiness forces across domains — land, sea, air and cyber — which will be assigned to specific plans for the defence of allies, a NATO official said.
Stoltenberg said NATO combat units on the alliance's eastern flank near Russia, particularly the Baltic states, would be boosted to brigade level.
In countries further west, such as Germany, dozens of pre-assigned troops are to be on stand-by.
The move would allow NATO to respond with more forces at short notice should the need arise, according to a NATO official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The transition was planned for completion in 2023, and the precise scale and composition of the force is still being worked on.
NATO will change its language on Russia from the current wording enshrined at the Lisbon summit in 2010 and describes Moscow as a strategic partner at the summit.
At the same time, Mr Stoltenberg dampened hopes for a breakthrough at the summit to overcome Turkey's opposition to the membership bids of Sweden and Finland.
"I will not make any promises or speculate about any specific time lines," Stoltenberg, who is scheduled to meet the leaders of all three countries in Madrid, said.